CHAPTER III.

[June—August: 1839.]

The Disunion of the Barukzyes—Prospects of Dost Mahomed—Keane’s Advance to Ghuznee—Massacre of the Prisoners—Fall of Ghuznee—Flight of Dost Mahomed—Hadjee Khan, Khaukur—Escape of Dost Mahomed—Entry of Shah Soojah into Caubul.

The disunion of the Barukzye brethren lost Afghanistan to the Sirdars. The bloodless fall of Candahar struck no astonishment into the soul of Dost Mahomed. He had long mistrusted his kinsmen. Candahar, too, was the home of the Douranees. He knew that the Barukzyes had nothing to expect from the allegiance of that powerful tribe. He knew that they were little inclined to strike a blow for the existing dynasty; but he knew at the same time, that they were so prostrate and enfeebled, that the Suddozye Prince would derive no active assistance from them—that they would only throw into the scale the passive sullenness and harmless decrepitude of men broken down by a long course of oppression.

If Dost Mahomed and the Candahar Sirdars had leagued themselves firmly together, without jealousy and without suspicion—if they had declared a religious war, and appealed to the Mahomedan feelings of the people—if they had, by their own energy and activity, encouraged Mehrab Khan of Khelat to array himself against the invaders, and throwing themselves heart and soul into the cause, had opposed our passage through the Bolan and Kojuck Passes, they might have turned to the best recount the sufferings of our famine-stricken army, and have given us, at the outset of the campaign, a check from which we should not have speedily recovered. But it seems to have been the design of Providence to paralyse our enemies at this time, and so to lure us into greater dangers than any that could have beset us at the opening of the campaign.

But although with slight feelings of astonishment Dost Mahomed now contemplated the successful establishment of Shah Soojah at Candahar, it could not have been without emotions of bitterness and mortification that he beheld his countrymen either flying ignobly before the invaders, or bowing down without shame before the money-bags of the infidels. It was a sore trial to him to see how almost every chief in the country was now prepared to sell his birthright for a mess of pottage. He had not sufficient confidence in his own strength, or the loyalty of his people, to believe that he could offer any effectual resistance to the approach of the Suddozye King, supported as he was by British bayonets and British gold. His enemies were advancing upon Caubul, both along the eastern and western lines of approach; and he was necessitated to divide his strength. Nor could he even give his undivided attention to his foreign enemies. There were danger and disaffection at home. The Kohistan was in rebellion.[330] He could see plainly that the Kuzzilbashes were against him. Indeed, all the bulwarks of national defence which he could hope to oppose to the advancing enemy, were crumbling to pieces before his eyes. Believing that all nationality of feeling was utterly extinct in the souls of his brethren, it had, ever since he had established himself at Caubul, been his policy to place the least possible amount of power in their hands, and to entrust all his delegated authority to the hands of his sons. His only trust now was in them. Akbar Khan had been despatched through the eastern passes to oppose the march of Wade and the Sikhs; Hyder Khan was in command of the garrison of Ghuznee; and Afzul Khan, with a body of horse, was in the neighbourhood of that fortress, instructed to operate against the flanks of our army in the open country. The Ameer himself was at the capital waiting the progress of events, and husbanding his strength for the final conflict.

In the Ameer’s camp there seems to have been little knowledge of the movements and designs of the enemy. It had been for some time believed that it was the intention of the British chiefs to march upon Herat, and now again it was the opinion that they purposed to mask Ghuznee and move at once upon Caubul. It seems, therefore, to have been the design of Dost Mahomed that Afzul Khan and Hyder Khan, having suffered us to advance a march or two beyond Ghuznee, should fall upon our rear, whilst Dost Mahomed himself was to give us battle from the front.[331] But he had not measured aright the policy of the British Commander. It was not Sir John Keane’s intention to mask Ghuznee, but to reduce it.

The strength of Ghuznee was the boast of the Afghans. They believed that it was not to be carried by assault. On the other hand, Sir John Keane, persuaded that it was not a place of any strength, had advanced upon Ghuznee without any siege guns. A battering train had been brought up, with great labour and at great expense, to Candahar, and now that it was likely to be brought into use, and so to repay the labour and the expense, Sir John Keane dropped it by the way. He was nearing the strongest fortress in the country; he knew that it was garrisoned by the enemy, and that, if he advanced upon it, it would be vigorously defended. He determined to advance upon it; and yet, with an amount of infatuation which, although after-events have thrown it into the shade, at the time took the country by surprise, and was, perhaps, unexampled in Indian warfare, he left his heavy guns at Candahar, and advanced upon Ghuznee with nothing but light field-pieces. He had been told that it was a place of no considerable strength, and that it would give him no trouble to take it. Major Todd and Lieutenant Leech had seen Ghuznee, and their reports had dissipated the anxieties of the Commander-in-Chief. So he found himself before a place which he subsequently described as one of “great strength both by nature and by art,” without any means of effecting a breach in its walls.

The city of Ghuznee lies between Candahar and Caubul—about 230 miles distant from the former, and ninety miles from the latter place. The entire line of country from Candahar to Caubul is, in comparison with that which lies between Caubul and Peshawur, an open and a level tract, opposing no difficulties to the march of an army encumbered with artillery and baggage. As a city, it was of less importance than either Caubul or Candahar.[332] But the strength of the citadel had been famous throughout many generations; and the first sight of the fortress, as it burst suddenly on the view of our advancing army, “with its fortifications rising up, as it were, on the side of a hill, which seemed to form the background to it,” must have thrust upon every officer of the force the conviction that, at Candahar, they had all underrated the strength of the place. It obviously was not a fortress to be breached by nine-pounder and six-pounder guns.

From the fortifications of the citadel Hyder Khan looked out through a telescope, and beheld our British columns advancing slowly and steadily across the plain. Some preparations had been made for external defence; but not on any extensive scale. Parties of the enemy were posted in the villages and gardens around the fort; but our light companies soon dislodged them. The morning was spent in brisk skirmishing;[333] the range of the enemy’s guns was tried; the engineers reconnoitred the place; and then it was determined that the camp should be pitched upon the Caubul side of the city. It was reported that Dost Mahomed himself was advancing from the capital, and it was expedient to cut off his direct communication with the fort. Not without some confusion the camp was pitched. Had Afzul Khan descended with his cavalry upon us at this time, he might have wrought dire mischief amongst us.

Day had scarcely dawned on the 22nd of July, when Sir John Keane, accompanied by Sir Willoughby Cotton and the engineers, ascended the heights commanding the eastern face of the works, and reconnoitred the fortress. He had determined on carrying the place by assault. In ignorance of the means whereby this was to be accomplished, the King had recommended that the army should leave Ghuznee to itself, and march on at once to Caubul. It was evident that the light field-pieces which Keane had brought up with him from Candahar could not breach the solid walls of Ghuznee. “If you once breach the place,” said the Shah, “it is yours; but I cannot understand how you are to breach it—how you are to get into the fort.” But Sir John Keane did understand this; for his engineers had taught him. He understood, though he had left his siege train behind, that there was still a resource remaining to him. Though the walls could not be breached, a gate, Captain Thomson assured him, might be blown in with gunpowder.

The gate to be blown in was the Caubul gate. All the others had been built up. The military historians leave it to be surmised by the reader that the knowledge of this important fact was derived from the _reconnaissances_ of the British Commander and his engineers. The truth is, that the British had then in their camp a deserter from the Ghuznee garrison—a Barukzye of rank, who had been induced to turn his traitorous back upon his tribe. Abdool Reshed Khan was the nephew of Dost Mahomed. When the “Commercial Mission” was in Afghanistan, Mohun Lal had made the acquaintance of this man. The Moonshee seems to have been endowed with a genius for traitor-making, the lustre of which remained undimmed to the very end of the war. He now began to operate upon his friend; and he achieved a brilliant success. Abdool Reshed was not deaf to the voice of the charmer. Mohun Lal wrote him a seductive letter, and he determined to desert. As the British army approached Ghuznee he joined our camp. “I introduced him,” says Mohun Lal, “to the Envoy, who placed him under the immediate disposal of Lord Keane. The information which he gave to Major Thomson, the chief engineer, relative to the fortifications of Ghuznee, was so valuable and necessary, that my friend Abdool Reshed Khan was requested to attend upon him in all his reconnoitring expeditions.” He was precisely the man we wanted. He gave us all the information we required. He taught us how to capture Ghuznee.

Having determined to enter Ghuznee through an entrance effected by an explosion of gunpowder, Keane began to issue his instructions for the assault, which was to take place before daybreak on the following morning. Every preparation was made, and every precaution was taken to ensure success. It was a day of expectation and anxiety, and not wholly uneventful. On that 22nd of July was made known to us, with fearful demonstrativeness, the character of those fanatic soldiers of Islam, who have since become so terribly familiar to us under the name of _Ghazees_. Incited by the priesthood, they flock to the green banner, eager to win Paradise by the destruction of their infidel foes, or to forestall the predestined bliss by dying the martyr’s death in the attempt. A party of these fearless followers of the Prophet had assembled in the neighbourhood of Ghuznee, and now they were about to pour down upon the Shah’s camp, and to rid the country of a King who had outraged Mahomedanism by returning to his people borne aloft on the shoulders of the infidels. A gallant charge of the Shah’s Horse, led by Peter Nicolson, who took no undistinguished part in the after-events of the war, checked the onslaught of these desperate fanatics; and Outram, with a party of foot, followed them to the heights where the cavalry had driven them, and captured their holy standard. Some fifty prisoners were taken. It is painful to relate what followed. Conducted into the presence of Shah Soojah, they gloried in their high calling, and openly reviled the King. One of them, more audacious than the rest, stabbed one of the royal attendants. Upon this, a mandate went forth for the massacre of the whole.

The Shah ordered them to be beheaded, and they were hacked to death, with wanton barbarity, by the knives of his executioners. Coolly and deliberately the slaughter of these unhappy men proceeded, till the whole lay mangled and mutilated upon the blood-stained ground.[334] Macnaghten, a little time before, had been commending the humane instincts of the King. The humanity of Shah Soojah was nowhere to be found except in Macnaghten’s letters. It is enough simply to recite the circumstances of a deed so terrible as this. It was an unhappy and an ominous commencement. The Shah had marched all the way from Loodhianah without encountering an enemy. And now the first men taken in arms against him were cruelly butchered in cold blood by the “humane” monarch. The act, impolitic as it was unrighteous, brought its own sure retribution. That “martyrdom” was never forgotten. The day of reckoning came at last; and when our unholy policy sunk unburied in blood and ashes, the shrill cry of the _Ghazee_ sounded as its funeral wail.

A gusty night had heralded a gusty morn, when Keane, inwardly bewailing the absence of his heavy guns, planted his light field-pieces on some commanding heights opposite the citadel, and filled the gardens near the city walls with his Sepoy musketeers. No sound issued from the fortress, nor was there any sign of life, whilst unseen under cover of the night, and unheard above the loud wailings of the wind, the storming column was gathering upon the Caubul road, and the engineers were carrying up their powder-bags to the gate. The advance was under Colonel Dennie, of the 13th Light Infantry; and the main column under Brigadier Sale.[335] Captain Thomson, of the Bengal Engineers, directed the movements of the explosion party; and with him were his two subalterns, Durand and Macleod, and Captain Peat, of the Bombay corps. Three hours after midnight everything was ready for the assault.

Then Keane ordered the light batteries to open upon the works of Ghuznee. It was a demonstration—harmless but not useless; for it fixed the attention of the enemy, and called forth a responsive fire. A row of blue lights along the walls now suddenly broke through the darkness and illuminated the place. The enemy had been beguiled by the false attack, and were now looking out towards our batteries, eager to learn the nature of the operations commenced by the investing force. And whilst the Afghans were thus engaged, anticipating an escalade and manning their walls, the British engineers were quietly piling their powder-bags at the Caubul gate.

The work was done rapidly and well. The match was applied to the hose. The powder exploded.[336] Above the roaring of the guns and the rushing of the wind, the noise of the explosion was barely audible.[337] But the effect was as mighty as it was sudden. A column of black smoke arose; and down with a crush came heavy masses of masonry and shivered beams in awful ruin and confusion. Then the bugle sounded the advance. Dennie at the head of his stormers, pushed forward through the smoke and dust of the aperture; and soon the bayonets of his light companies were crossing the swords of the enemy who had rushed down to the point of attack. A few moments of darkness and confusion; and then the foremost soldiers caught a glimpse of the morning sky, and pushing gallantly on, were soon established in the fortress. Three hearty, animating cheers—so loud and clear that they were heard throughout the general camp[338]—announced to their excited comrades below that Dennie and his stormers had entered Ghuznee.

Then Sale pressed on with the main column, eager to support the stormers in advance; and as he went he met an engineer officer of the explosion party, who had been thrown to the ground, shattered and bewildered by the concussion,[339] and who now announced that the gate was choked up, and that Dennie could not force an entrance. So Sale sounded the retreat. The column halted. There was a pause of painful doubt and anxiety; and then the cheering notes of the bugle, sounding the advance, again stirred the hearts of our people. Another engineer officer had reported that, though the aperture was crowded with fallen rubbish, Dennie had made good his entrance. Onward, therefore, went Sale; but the enemy had profited by the brief pause. The opposition at the gateway now was more resolute than it would have been if there had been no check. The Afghans were crowding to the gate; some for purposes of defence, others to escape the fire which Dennie was pouring in upon them. Sale met them amidst the ruins—amidst the crumbled masonry and the fallen timbers. There was a sturdy conflict. The Brigadier himself was cut down;[340] but after a desperate struggle with his opponent, whose skull he clove with his sabre, he regained his feet, again issued his commands; and the main column was soon within the fortress. The support, under Colonel Croker, then pushed forward; the reserve in due course followed; the capture of Ghuznee was complete; and soon the colours of the 13th and 17th regiments were flapping in the strong morning breeze on the ramparts of the Afghans’ last stronghold.[341]

But there was much hard fighting within the walls. In the frenzy of despair the Afghans rushed out from their hiding-places, sword in hand, upon our stormers, and plied their sabres with terrible effect, but only to meet with fearful retribution from the musket-fire or the bayonets of the British infantry. There was horrible confusion and much carnage. Some, in their frantic efforts to escape by the gateway, stumbled over the burning timbers, wounded and exhausted, and were slowly burnt to death. Some were bayoneted on the ground. Others were pursued and hunted into corners like mad dogs, and shot down, with the curse and the prayer on their lips. But never, it is said by the historians of the war, after the garrison had ceased to fight, did the wrath of their assailants overtake them. Many an Afghan sold his life dearly, and, though wounded and stricken down, still cut out at the hated enemy. But when resistance was over, mercy smiled down upon him. The appeals of the helpless were never disregarded by the victors in their hour of triumph. The women, too, were honourably treated. Hyder Khan’s zenana was in the citadel; but not a woman was outraged by the captors.[342]

Resistance over, the Commander-in-Chief and the Envoy entered Ghuznee by the Caubul gate. Shah Soojah, before the contest was over, had ridden down to the point of attack, and watched the progress of events with the deepest interest, but with no apparent want of collectedness and nerve.[343] Keane and Macnaghten now led him up to the citadel. The wife of Hyder Khan, and the other women of his zenana, were conducted, under the orders of the political and military chiefs, by John Conolly, a cousin of the Envoy, to a house in the town, where they were placed under the charge of the Moonshee Mohun Lal.[344] But Hyder Khan himself had not yet been discovered. The Suddozye Prince and the British chiefs were inquiring after the commander of the garrison; but no tidings of him were to be obtained. He might have been concealed in the fortress, or he might have effected his escape. Accident only betrayed the position of the young Sirdar. He was found in a house near the Candahar gate, by an officer of the Company’s European regiment.[345] At once acknowledging that he was the governor of Ghuznee, he threw himself upon the mercy of his captors. Conducted to Keane’s tent, the Sirdar was guaranteed his personal safety, and placed under the charge of Sir Alexander Burnes.[346] He was unwilling at first to appear in the presence of Shah Soojah; but the assurances of the Commander-in-Chief overcame his reluctance, and Keane conducted him both to the Mission and to the King. Instructed as to the reception he was to accord to the fallen Barukzye chief, the Suddozye monarch received him with an outward show of kindness, and, with a dignified courtesy which he so well knew how to assume, declared that he forgave the past, and told him to go in peace.

And so Ghuznee fell to the British army, and was made over to the Suddozye King. It cost the victors only seventeen killed and a hundred and sixty-five wounded. Of these last eighteen were officers. The carnage among the garrison was most fearful. Upwards of five hundred men were buried by the besiegers; and many more are supposed to have fallen beyond the walls, under the sabres of the British horsemen. Sixteen hundred prisoners were taken. Immense stores of grain and flour, sufficient for a protracted defence, fell into our hands; and a large number of horses and arms swelled the value of the captured property.

The fall of Ghuznee—a fortress hitherto deemed by the Afghans impregnable—astounded Dost Mahomed and his sons, and struck terror into their souls. Afzul Khan, who was hovering about the neighbourhood, prepared to fall upon our baffled army, found, to his wonderment, that the British colours were waving over the far-famed citadel of Ghuznee, and immediately sought safety in flight. Abandoning his elephants and the whole of his camp-equipage which fell as booty into the hands of Shah Soojah, the Sirdar fled to Caubul. His father, greatly incensed, ordered him immediately to halt, and “peremptorily refused to receive him.”[347] He had expected something better from one who had done such good service on the boasted battle-field of Jumrood.

In little more than four-and-twenty hours after the fall of Ghuznee, intelligence of the event reached the camp of the Ameer. He at once assembled his chiefs, spoke of the defection of some of his people, expressed his apprehension that others were about to desert him, and declared his conviction that, without the aid of treachery, Ghuznee would not have fallen before the Feringhees. Then he called upon all present, who wavered in their loyalty, at once to withdraw from his presence, that he might know the extent of his resources, and not rely upon the false friendship of men who would forsake him in the crisis of his fate. All protested their fidelity. A council of war was held, and the Newab Jubbar Khan was despatched to the British camp[348] to treat with Shah Soojah and his allies.

The Newab mounted his horse and rode with unaccustomed rapidity to Ghuznee. Mohun Lal went out to meet him some miles beyond the camp; and Burnes received him at the piquets. A tent was pitched for his accommodation near the Envoy’s; and he was well received by the British Mission. The King received him, too, with the same well-trained courtesy that he had bestowed on Hyder Khan—but the efforts of the Newab were fruitless. He tendered on the part of the Ameer submission to the Suddozye Prince; but claimed, on the part of the brother of Futteh Khan, the hereditary office of Wuzeer, which had been held so long and so ably by the Barukzyes. The claim was at once rejected, and the mockery of an “honourable asylum” in the British dominions offered in its stead. Jubbar Khan spoke out plainly and bluntly, like an honest man. His brother had no ambition to surrender his freedom and become a pensioner on the bounty of the British Government. Had his cause been far more hopeless than it was, Dost Mahomed, at that time, would have rather flung himself upon the British bayonets than upon the protection of the Feringhees. Jubbar Khan then frankly stating his own determination to follow the fortunes of his brother, requested and received his dismissal.[349]

The Newab returned to the Ameer’s camp. All hope of negotiation was now at an end, and Dost Mahomed, with resolution worthy of a better fate, marched out to dispute the progress of the invaders. At the head of an army, in which the seeds of dissolution had already been sown, he moved down upon Urghundeh. There he drew up his troops and parked his guns. But it was not on this ground that he had determined to give the Feringhees battle. The last stand was to have been made at Maidan, on the Caubul river—a spot, the natural advantages of which would have been greatly in his favour. But the battle was never fought. At Urghundeh it became too manifest that there was treachery in his camp. The venal Kuzzilbashes were fast deserting his standard. There was scarcely a true man left in his ranks. Hadjee Khan Khaukur, on whom he had placed great reliance, had gone over to the enemy, and others were fast following his example. This was the crisis of his fate. He looked around him and saw only perfidy on the right hand and on the left. Equal to the occasion, but basely deserted, what could the Ameer do? Never had the nobility of his nature shone forth more truly and more lustrously. In the hour of adversity, when all were false, he was true to his own manhood. Into the midst of his own perfidious troops he rode, with the Koran in his hand; and there called upon his followers, in the names of God and the Prophet, not to forget that they were true Mahomedans—not to disgrace their names and to dishonour their religion, by rushing into the arms of one who had filled the country with infidels and blasphemers. He besought them to make one stand, like brave men and true believers; to rally round the standard of the commander of the faithful; to beat back the invading Feringhees or die in the glorious attempt. He then reminded them of his own claims on their fidelity. “You have eaten my salt,” he said, “these thirteen years. If, as is too plain, you are resolved to seek a new master, grant me but one favour in requital for that long period of maintenance and kindness—enable me to die with honour. Stand by the brother of Futteh Khan, whilst he executes one last charge against the cavalry of these Feringhee dogs; in that onset he will fall; then go and make your own terms with Shah Soojah.”[350] The noble spirit-stirring appeal was vainly uttered; few responded to it. There was scarcely a true heart left. With despairing eyes he looked around upon his recreant followers. He saw that there was no hope of winning them back to their old allegiance he felt that he was surrounded by traitors and cowards, who were willing to abandon him to his fate. It was idle to struggle against his destiny. The first bitter pang was over; he resumed his serenity of demeanour, and, addressing himself to the Kuzzilbashes, formally gave them their discharge. He then dismissed all who were inclined to purchase safety by tendering allegiance to the Shah; and with a small handful of followers, leaving his guns still in position, turned his horse’s head towards the regions of the Hindoo-Koosh.[351]

It was on the evening of the 2nd of August that Dost Mahomed fled from Urghundeh. On the following day the British army, which had moved from Ghuznee on the 30th of July, received tidings of his flight. It was now determined to send a party in pursuit. It was mainly to consist of Afghan horsemen; but some details from our cavalry regiments were sent with them, and Captain Outram, ever ready for such service, volunteered for the command. Other officers—bold riders and dashing soldiers[352]—were eager to join in the pursuit; and a party of ten, with about five hundred mounted men, mustered that afternoon before the Mission tents, equipped for the raid.

If the success of this expedition had depended upon the zeal and activity of the officers, Dost Mahomed would have been brought back a prisoner to the British camp; for never did a finer set of men leap into their saddles, flushed with the thought of the stirring work before them. But when they set out in pursuit of the fallen Ameer, a traitor rode with them, intent on turning to very nothingness all their chivalry and devotion. There was an Afghan chief known as Hadjee Khan Khaukur, of whom mention has been made. He was a man of mean extraction, the son of a goat-herd,[353] but from this low estate had risen into notice, and obtained service with Dost Mahomed. It was not in his nature to be faithful. He deserted Dost Mahomed, and attached himself to the Candahar Sirdars. On the advance of the British army he deserted the Sirdars, and flung himself at the feet of the Suddozye. Delighted with such an accession to his strength, the King appointed him Nassur-ood-dowlah, or “Defender of the State,” and conferred on him a Jaghire of the annual value of three lakhs of rupees.

At Candahar, whence the Sirdars had fled, the Hadjee, profoundly conscious of the hopelessness of their cause, broke out into loyalty and enthusiasm, and was, to all outward seeming, a faithful adherent of the Shah. But as he entered the principality of the Caubul Ameer, he seemed to stand upon more uncertain ground; the issue of the contest was yet doubtful. Dost Mahomed and his sons were in the field. So the Hadjee made many excuses; and fell in the rear of the British army. He was sick; it was necessary that he should march easily; he could not bear the bustle of the camp. Keeping, therefore, a few marches in the rear, he followed our advancing columns, with his retainers; and there, it is said, “enjoyed the congenial society of several discontented and intriguing noblemen.”[354]

If Ghuznee had not fallen, Hadjee Khan and his friends would have gone over in a body to the Ameer, and on the slightest information of a reverse having befallen us, would have flung themselves on our rear. But the fall of this great Afghan stronghold brought the Hadjee again to the stirrup of the Shah; and he was again all loyalty and devotion. Confident of his fidelity, and perhaps anxious to establish it in the eyes of all who had viewed with suspicion the proceedings of the Hadjee, the King now put it to the proof. The man had once been Governor of Bameean. He knew the country along which the Ameer had taken his flight. What could be better than to entrust the conduct of the expedition to the veteran chief? The King and Macnaghten were of the same mind; so Hadjee Khan, who had been for some time in treasonable correspondence with Dost Mahomed, was now despatched to overtake him and bring him back a prisoner to the camp of the Shah.

The result may be easily anticipated. Hadjee Khan cheerfully undertook the duty entrusted to him. The enterprise required the utmost possible amount of energy and promptitude to secure its success. The Ameer and his party were more than a day’s journey in advance of his pursuers. Every hour’s delay lessened the chance of overtaking the fugitive. So the Hadjee began at once to delay. The pursuers were to have started four hours after noon; Hadjee Khan was not ready till nightfall. Then he was eager to take the circuitous high road instead of dashing across the hills. His people lagged behind to plunder. He himself, when Outram was most eager to push on, always counselled a halt, and in the hour of need the guides deserted. The Ameer was now but little in advance; he was encumbered with women, and children, and much baggage. He had a sick son,[355] on whose account it was necessary to diminish the speed of his flight. Outram seemed almost to have the Ameer in his grasp; when Hadjee Khan again counselled delay. It was necessary, he said, to wait for reinforcements. The Ameer had two thousand fighting men. The Afghans under Hadjee Khan were not to be relied upon. They had no food: their horses were knocked up; they were unwilling to advance. Angry and indignant, Outram broke from the Hadjee in the midst of his entreaties, and declared that he would push on with his own men. Again and again there was the same contention between the chivalrous earnestness of the British officer and the foul treachery of the Afghan chief. At last, on the 9th of August, they reached Bameean, where Hadjee Khan had repeatedly declared that Dost Mahomed would halt, only to learn that the fugitives were that morning to be at Syghan, nearly thirty miles in advance. The Ameer was pushing on with increased rapidity, for the sick Prince, who had been carried in a litter, was now transferred to the back of an elephant, and his escape was now almost certain. The treachery of Hadjee Khan had done its work. Outram had been restricted in his operations to the limits of the Shah’s dominions; and the Ameer had now passed the borders. Further pursuit, indeed, would have been hopeless. The horses of our cavalry were exhausted by over-fatigue and want of food. They were unable any longer to continue their forced marches. The game, therefore, was up. Dost Mahomed had escaped. Hadjee Khan Khaukur had saved the Ameer; but he had sacrificed himself. He had overreached himself in his career of treachery, and was now to pay the penalty of detection. Outram officially reported the circumstances of the Hadjee’s conduct, which had baffled all his best efforts—efforts which, he believed, would have been crowned with success[356]—and the traitor, on his return to Caubul, was arrested by orders of the Shah. Other proofs of his treason were readily found; and he was sentenced to end a life of adventurous vicissitude as a state prisoner in the provinces of Hindostan.[357]

So fled Dost Mahomed Khan across the frontier of Afghanistan. His guns were found in position at Urghundeh by a party of cavalry and horse artillery sent forward to capture them. They were mostly light pieces;[358] and neither the ordnance nor the position which had been taken up, could be considered of a very formidable character.[359] It has been already said, however, that the Ameer had fixed upon another spot on which to meet the advancing armies of the Shah and his allies—a spot well calculated for defence, which, three years afterwards, Shumshoodeen Khan selected for his last stand against the battalions of General Nott; but on which, like his distinguished clansman, he never gave us battle.

On the 6th of August, Shah Soojah and the British army appeared before the walls of Caubul. On the following day the King entered the capital of Afghanistan. The exile of thirty years—the baffled and rejected representative of the legitimacy of the Douranee Empire, was now at the palace gates. The jingling of the money-bags, and the gleaming of the bayonets of the British, had restored him to the throne which, without these glittering aids, he had in vain striven to recover. The Balla Hissar of Caubul now reared its proud front before him, It was truly a great occasion. The King, gorgeous in regal apparel, and resplendent with jewels, rode a white charger, whose equipments sparkled with Asiatic gold.[360] It was a goodly sight to see the coronet, the girdle, and the bracelets which scintillated upon the person of the rider, and turned the fugitive and the outcast into a pageant and a show. There were those present to whom the absence of the _Koh-i-noor_, which, caged in Hyde Park, has since become so familiar to the sight-seers of Great Britain, suggested strange reminiscences of the King’s eventful career. But the restored monarch, wanting the great diamond, still sparkled into royalty as he rode up to the Balla Hissar, with the white-faced Kings of Afghanistan beside him. In diplomatic costume, Macnaghten and Burnes accompanied the Suddozye puppet. The principal military officers of the British army rode with them. And Moonshee Mohun Lal, flaunting a majestic turban, and looking, in his spruceness, not at all as though his mission in Afghanistan were to do the dirty work of the British diplomatists, made a very conspicuous figure in the gay cavalcade.[361]

But never was there a duller procession. The King and his European supporters rode through the streets of Caubul to the palace in the citadel; but as they went there was no popular enthusiasm; the voice of welcome was still. The inhabitants came to the thresholds of the houses simply to look at the show. They stared at the European strangers more than at the King, who had been brought back to Caubul by the Feringhees; and scarcely even took the trouble to greet the Suddozye Prince with a common salaam. It was more like a funeral procession than the entry of a King into the capital of his restored dominions. But when Shah Soojah reached the palace from which he had so long been absent, he broke out into a paroxysm of childish delight—visited the gardens and apartments with eager activity—commented on the signs of neglect which everywhere presented themselves to his eyes—and received with feelings of genial pleasure the congratulations of the British officers, who soon left his Majesty to himself to enjoy the sweets of restored dominion.

The restoration of Shah Soojah-ool Moolk to the sovereignty of Afghanistan had thus been outwardly accomplished. The Barukzye Sirdars had been expelled from their principalities; a British garrison had been planted in Candahar and in Ghuznee; and a British army was now encamping under the walls of Caubul. A great revolution had thus been perfected. The Douranee monarchy had been restored. The objects contemplated in the Simlah manifesto had been seemingly accomplished, and the originators of the policy which had sent our armies thus to triumph in Afghanistan shouted with exultation as they looked upon their first great blaze of success.

APPENDIX.

[Vol. I., page 70.]

_Preliminary Treaty with Persia, concluded by Sir Harford Jones on the 12th of March, 1809._

In the Name of Him who is ever necessary, who is all-sufficient, who is everlasting, and who is the only Protector.

In these times distinguished by felicity, the excellent Ambassador, Sir Harford Jones, Baronet, Member of the Honourable Imperial Ottoman Order of the Crescent, has arrived at the Royal City of Teheran, in quality of Ambassador from His Majesty the King of England (titles), bearing His Majesty’s credential letter, and charged with full powers munited with the great seal of England, empowering him to strengthen the friendship and consolidate the strict union subsisting between the high states of England and Persia. His Majesty the King of Persia (titles) therefore, by a special firmaun delivered to the said Ambassador, has appointed the most excellent and noble Lords Meerza Mahomed Sheffeeh, qualified with the title of Moatumed-ed-Dowlah, his First Vizier, and Hajee Mahomed Hoossein Khan, qualified with the title of Ameen-ed-Dowlah, one of the Ministers of Record, to be his Plenipotentiaries to confer and discuss with the aforesaid Ambassador of His Britannic Majesty, all matters and affairs touching the formation and consolidation of friendship, alliance, and strict union between the two high states, and to arrange and finally conclude the same for the benefit and advantage of both Kingdoms. In consequence whereof, after divers meetings and discussions, the aforesaid Plenipotentiaries have resolved that the following Articles are for the benefit and advantage of both the high states, and are hereafter to be accordingly for ever observed:

ART. I.—That as some time will be required to arrange and form a definitive treaty of alliance and friendship between the two high states, and as the circumstances of the world make it necessary for something to be done without loss of time, it is agreed these Articles, which are to be regarded as preliminary, shall become a basis for establishing a sincere and everlasting definitive treaty of strict friendship and union; and it is agreed that the said definitive treaty, precisely expressing the wishes and obligations of each party, shall be signed and sealed by the said Plenipotentiaries, and afterwards become binding on both the high contracting parties.

II. It is agreed that the preliminary articles, formed with the hand of truth and sincerity, shall not be changed or altered, but there shall arise from them a daily increase of friendship, which shall last for ever between the two most serene Kings, their heirs, successors, their subjects, and their respective kingdoms, dominions, provinces, and countries.

III. His Majesty the King of Persia judges it necessary to declare that from the date of these preliminary articles, every treaty or agreement he may have made with any one of the powers of Europe, becomes null and void, and that he will not permit any European force whatever to pass through Persia, either towards India, or towards the ports of that country.

IV. In case any European forces have invaded, or shall invade, the territories of His Majesty the King of Persia, His Britannic Majesty will afford to His Majesty the King of Persia, a force, or, in lieu of it, a subsidy with warlike ammunition, such as guns, muskets, &c., and officers, to the amount that may be to the advantage of both parties, for the expulsion of the force so invading; and the number of these forces, or the amount of the subsidy, ammunition, &c., shall be hereafter regulated in the definitive treaty. In case His Majesty the King of England should make peace with such European power, His Britannic Majesty shall use his utmost endeavours to negotiate and procure a peace between His Persian Majesty and such power. But if (which God forbid) His Britannic Majesty’s efforts for this purpose should fail of success, then the forces or subsidy, according to the amount mentioned in the definitive treaty, shall still continue in the service of the King of Persia as long as the said European forces shall remain in the territories of His Persian Majesty, or until peace is concluded between His Persian Majesty and the said European power. And it is further agreed, that in case the dominions of His Britannic Majesty in India are attacked or invaded by the Afghans or any other power, His Majesty the King of Persia shall afford a force for the protection of the said dominions, according to the stipulations contained in the definitive treaty.

V. If a detachment of British troops has arrived from India in the Gulf of Persia, and by the consent of His Persian Majesty landed on the Island of Karrak, or at any of the Persian ports, they shall not in any manner possess themselves of such places; and, from the date of these preliminary articles, the said detachment shall be at the disposal of His Majesty the King of Persia, except his Excellency the Governor-General of India judges such detachment necessary for the defence of India, in which case they shall be returned to India, and a subsidy, in lieu of the personal services of these troops, shall be paid to His Majesty the King of Persia, the amount of which shall be settled in the definitive treaty.

VI. But if the said troops remain, by the desire of His Majesty the King of Persia, either at Karrak, or any other port in the Gulf of Persia, they shall be treated by the Governor there in the most friendly manner, and orders shall be given to all the Governors of Farsistan, that whatever quantity of provisions, &c., may be necessary, shall, on being paid for, be furnished to the said troops at the fair prices of the day.

VII. In case war takes place between His Persian Majesty and the Afghans, His Majesty the King of Great Britain shall not take any part therein, unless it be at the desire of both parties, to afford his mediation for peace.

VIII. It is acknowledged the intent and meaning of these preliminary articles are defensive. And it is likewise agreed, that as long as these preliminary articles remain in force, His Majesty the King of Persia shall not enter into any engagements inimical to His Britannic Majesty, or pregnant with injury or disadvantage to the British territories in India.

This treaty is concluded by both parties, in the hope of its being everlasting, and that it may be productive of the most beautiful fruits of friendship between the two most serene Kings.

In witness whereof we, the said Plenipotentiaries, have hereunto set our hands and seals in the Royal City of Teheran, this twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and nine, answering to the twenty-fifth of Mohurrum el Haram, in the year of the Hegira one thousand two hundred and twenty-four.

(L.S.) HARFORD JONES. (L.S.) MAHOMED SHEFFEEH. (L.S.) MAHOMED HOOSSEIN.

[Vol. I., page 85.]

_Treaty with Runjeet Singh, the Rajah of Lahore, dated 25th April, 1809._

Whereas certain differences which had arisen between the British Government and the Rajah of Lahore, have been happily and amicably adjusted, and both parties being anxious to maintain the relations of perfect amity and concord, the following articles of treaty, which shall be binding on the heirs and successors of the two parties, have been concluded by Rajah Runjeet Singh on his own part, and by the agency of Charles Theophilus Metcalfe, Esquire, on the part of the British Government:

ART. I. Perpetual friendship shall subsist between the British Government and the State of Lahore. The latter shall be considered, with respect to the former, to be on the footing of the most favoured powers; and the British Government will have no concern with the territories and subjects of the Rajah to the northward of the river Sutlej.

II. The Rajah will never maintain, in the territory occupied by him and his dependents on the left bank of the river Sutlej, more troops than are necessary for the internal duties of that territory, nor commit, or suffer, any encroachment on the possessions or rights of the chiefs in its vicinity.

III. In the event of a violation of any of the preceding articles, or of a departure from the rules of friendship, on the part of either state, this treaty shall be considered null and void.

IV. This treaty, consisting of four articles, having been settled and concluded at Umritser, on the 25th day of April, 1809, Mr. Charles Theophilus Metcalfe has delivered to the Rajah of Lahore a copy of the same in English and Persian, under his seal and signature; and the said Rajah has delivered another copy of the same under his seal and signature; and Mr. Charles Theophilus Metcalfe engages to procure, within the space of two months, a copy of the same, duly ratified by the Right Honourable the Governor-General in Council, on the receipt of which by the Rajah, the present treaty shall be deemed complete and binding on both parties, and the copy of it now delivered to the Rajah shall be restored.

[Vol. I., page 92.]

_Treaty with the King of Caubul, dated 17th June, 1809._

Whereas in consequence of the confederacy with the state of Persia, projected by the French for the purpose of invading the dominions of His Majesty the King of the Douranees, and ultimately, those of the British Government in India, the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone was despatched to the Court of His Majesty, in quality of Envoy Plenipotentiary, on the part of the Right Honourable Lord Minto, Governor-General, exercising the supreme authority over all affairs, civil, political, and military, in the British possessions in the East Indies, for the purpose of concerting with His Majesty’s Ministers the means of mutual defence against the expected invasion of the French and Persians; and whereas the said Ambassador having had the honour of being presented to His Majesty, and of explaining the friendly and beneficial object of his mission, His Majesty, sensible of the advantages of alliance and co-operation between the two states, for the purpose above described, directed his Ministers to confer with the Honourable Mountstuart Elphinstone, and, consulting the welfare of both states, to conclude a friendly alliance; and certain articles of treaty having accordingly been agreed to between His Majesty’s Ministers and the British Ambassador, and confirmed by the Royal Signet, a copy of the treaty so framed has been transmitted by the Ambassador for the ratification of the Governor-General, who, consenting to the stipulations therein contained without variation, a copy of these articles, as hereunder written, is now returned, duly ratified by the seal and signature of the Governor-General, and the signatures of the members of the British Government in India. And the obligations upon both governments, both now and for ever, shall be exclusively regulated and determined by the tenor of those Articles which are as follow:

ART. I. As the French and Persians have entered into a confederacy against the state of Caubul, if they should wish to pass through the King’s dominions, the servants of the heavenly throne shall prevent their passage, and exerting themselves to the extent of their power in making war on them and repelling them, shall not permit them to cross into British India.

II. If the French and Persians, in pursuance of their confederacy, should advance towards the King of Caubul’s country in a hostile manner, the British state, endeavouring heartily to repel them, shall hold themselves liable to afford the expenses necessary for the above-mentioned service, to the extent of their ability. While the confederacy between the French and Persians continues in force, these articles shall be in force, and be acted on by both parties.

III. Friendship and union shall continue for ever between these two states. The veil of separation shall be lifted up from between them, and they shall in no manner interfere in each other’s countries; and the King of Caubul shall permit no individual of the French to enter his territories.

The faithful servants of both states having agreed to this treaty, the conditions of confirmation and ratification have been performed, and this document has been sealed and signed by the Right Honourable the Governor-General and the Honourable the Members of the Supreme British Government in India, this 17th day of June, 1809, answering to the 1224 of the Hegira.

[Vol. I, p. 96.]

_Treaty with the Ameers of Sindh, dated 22nd August, 1809._

ART. I. There shall be eternal friendship between the British Government and that of Sindh, namely, Meer Gholam Alee, Meer Kurreem Alee, and Meer Murad Alee.

II. Enmity shall never appear between the two states.

III. The mutual despatch of the Vakeels of both Governments, namely, the British Government and Sindhian Government, shall always continue.

IV. The Government of Sindh will not allow the establishment of the tribe of the French in Sindh.

Written on the 10th of the month of Rujeeb-ool-Moorujub, in the year of the Hegira, 1224, corresponding with the 22nd of August, 1809.

[Vol. I., p. 144.]

_Definitive Treaty with Persia, concluded at Teheran, by Messrs. Morier and Ellis, on the 25th November, 1814._

Praise be to God, the all-perfect and all-sufficient.

These happy leaves are a nosegay plucked from the thornless Garden of Concord, and tied by the hands of the Plenipotentiaries of the two great states in the form of a definitive treaty, in which the articles of friendship and amity are blended.

Previously to this period, the high in station, Sir Harford Jones, Baronet, Envoy Extraordinary from the English Government, came to this Court, to form an amicable alliance, and in conjunction with the Plenipotentiaries of Persia, their Excellencies (titles) Meerza Mahomed Sheffeeh and Hajee Mahomed Hussein Khan, concluded a preliminary treaty, the particulars of which were to be detailed and arranged in a definitive treaty; and the above-mentioned treaty, according to its articles, was ratified by the British Government.

Afterwards, when His Excellency Sir Gore Ouseley, Ambassador Extraordinary from His Britannic Majesty, arrived at this exalted and illustrious Court, for the purpose of completing the relations of amity between the two states, and was invested with full powers by his own government to arrange all the important affairs of friendship, the ministers of this victorious state, with the advice and approbation of the above-mentioned Ambassador, concluded a definitive treaty, consisting of fixed articles and stipulations.

That treaty having been submitted to the British Government, certain changes in its articles and provisions, consistent with friendship, appeared necessary, and Henry Ellis, Esquire, was accordingly despatched to this court, in charge of a letter explanatory of the above-mentioned alterations. Therefore, their Excellencies Meerza Mahomed Sheffeeh, Prime Minister, Meerza Bozoork, Caimacan (titles), and Meerza Abdul Wahab, Principal Secretary of State (titles), were duly appointed, and invested with full powers to negotiate with the Plenipotentiaries of His Britannic Majesty, James Morier, Esquire, recently appointed minister at this court, and the above-mentioned Henry Ellis, Esquire. These Plenipotentiaries having consulted on the terms most advisable for this alliance, have comprised them in eleven articles. What relates to commerce, trade, and other affairs, will be drawn up and concluded in a separate commercial treaty.

ART. I. The Persian Government judge it incumbent on them, after the conclusion of this definitive treaty, to declare all alliances contracted with European nations in a state of hostility with Great Britain, null and void, and hold themselves bound not to allow any European army to enter the Persian territory, nor to proceed towards India, nor to any of the ports of that country; and also engage not to allow any individuals of such European nations, entertaining a design of invading India, or being at enmity with Great Britain, whatever, to enter Persia. Should any European powers wish to invade India by the road of Kharazm, Tartaristan, Bokhara, Samarcand, or other routes, His Persian Majesty engages to induce the Kings and Governors of those countries to oppose such invasion, as much as is in his power, either by the fear of his arms, or by conciliatory measures.

II. It is agreed, that these articles, formed with the hand of truth and sincerity, shall not be changed or altered; but, there shall arise from them a daily increase of friendship, which shall last for ever between the two most serene Kings, their heirs, successors, their subjects and their respective kingdoms, dominions, provinces, and countries. And His Britannic Majesty further engages not to interfere in any dispute which may hereafter arise between the princes, noblemen, and great chiefs of Persia; and if one of the contending parties should even offer a province of Persia, with view of obtaining assistance, the English Government shall not agree to such a proposal, nor by adopting it, possess themselves of such part of Persia.

III. The purpose of this treaty is strictly defensive, and the object is that from their mutual assistance both states should derive stability and strength; and this treaty has only been concluded for the purpose of repelling the aggressions of enemies; and the purport of the word aggression in this treaty is, an attack upon the territories of another state. The limits of the territory of the two states of Russia and Persia shall be determined according to the admission of Great Britain, Persia, and Russia.

IV. It having been agreed by an article in the preliminary treaty concluded between the high contracting parties, that in case of any European nation invading Persia, should the Persian Government require the assistance of the English, the Governor-General of India, on the part of Great Britain, shall comply with the wish of the Persian Government, by sending from India the force required, with officers, ammunition, and warlike stores, or, in lieu thereof, the English Government shall pay an annual subsidy, the amount of which shall be regulated in a definitive treaty to be concluded between the high contracting parties; it is hereby provided, that the amount of the said subsidy shall be two hundred thousand (200,000) tomauns annually. It is further agreed, that the said subsidy shall not be paid in case the war with such European nation shall have been produced by an aggression on the part of Persia; and since the payment of the above subsidy will be made solely for the purpose of raising and disciplining an army, it is agreed that the English minister shall be satisfied of its being duly applied to the purpose for which it is assigned.

V. Should the Persian Government wish to introduce European discipline among their troops, they are at liberty to employ European officers for that purpose, provided the said officers do not belong to nations in a state of war or enmity with Great Britain.

VI. Should any European power be engaged in war with Persia when at peace with England, His Britannic Majesty engages to use his best endeavours to bring Persia and such European power to a friendly understanding. If, however, His Majesty’s cordial interference should fail of success, England shall still, if required, in conformity with the stipulations in the preceding articles, send a force from India, or, in lieu thereof, pay an annual subsidy of two hundred thousand (200,000) tomauns for the support of a Persian army, so long as a war in the supposed case shall continue, and until Persia shall make peace with such nation.

VII. Since it is the custom of Persia to pay the troops six months in advance, the English minister at that court shall do all in his power to pay the subsidy in as early instalments as may be convenient.

VIII. Should the Afghans be at war with the British nation, His Persian Majesty engages to send an army against them in such manner and of such force as may be concerted with the English Government. The expenses of such an army shall be defrayed by the British Government, in such manner as may be agreed upon at the period of its being required.

IX. If war should be declared between the Afghans and Persians, the English Government shall not interfere with either party, unless their mediation to effect a peace shall be solicited by both parties.

X. Should any Persian subject of distinction, showing signs of hostility and rebellion, take refuge in the British dominions, the English Government shall, on intimation from the Persian Government, turn him out of their country, or, if he refuse to leave it, shall seize and send him to Persia.

Previously to the arrival of such fugitive in the English territory, should the governor of the district to which he may direct his flight receive intelligence of the wishes of the Persian Government respecting him, he shall refuse him admission. After such prohibition, should such person persist in his resolution, the said governor shall cause him to be seized and sent to Persia; it being understood that the aforesaid obligations are reciprocal between the contracting parties.

XI. Should His Persian Majesty require assistance from the English Government in the Persian Gulf, they shall, if convenient and practicable, assist him with ships of war and troops. The expenses of such expedition shall be accounted for and defrayed by the Persian Government, and the above ships shall anchor in such ports as shall be pointed out by the Persian Government, and not enter other harbours without permission, except from absolute necessity.

The articles are thus auspiciously concluded:

A definitive treaty between the two states having formerly been prepared, consisting of twelve articles, and certain changes, not inconsistent with friendship, having appeared necessary, we the Plenipotentiaries of the two states comprising the said treaty in eleven articles, have hereunto set our hands and seals, in the royal city of Teheran, this twenty-fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, corresponding with the twelfth Zealhajeh, in the year of the Hegira one thousand two hundred and twenty-nine.

(L.S.) JAMES MORIER. (L.S.) HENRY ELLIS. (L.S.) MAHOMED SHEFFEEH. (L.S.) ABDUL WAHAB. (L.S.) ISAH (MEERZA BOZOORK).

[Vol. I., page 153.]

_Bonds given by Abbas Meerza, Prince Royal of Persia, and by the Shah, cancelling the Subsidy Articles of the Treaty of 25th November, 1814._

_Bond granted by Abbas Meerza, Prince Royal of Persia, to Lieutenant-Colonel Macdonald, British Envoy._

Be it known to Colonel Macdonald, British envoy at our Court, that we, the heir apparent to the Persian throne, in virtue of the full powers vested in us by the Shah, in all matters touching the foreign relations of this kingdom, do hereby pledge our solemn word and promise, that if the British Government will assist us with the sum of two hundred thousand tomauns (200,000), towards the liquidation of the indemnity due by us to Russia, we will expunge, and hereafter consider as annulled, the IIIrd and IVth articles of the definitive treaty, between the two states, concluded by Mr. Ellis, and obtain the royal sanction to the same.

This paper bears the seal of His Royal Highness Abbas Meerza, and that of His Persian Majesty’s Minister, the Kaim-Mukam.

Dated in the month of Shaban, or March, 1828.

_Ruckum of His Royal Highness the Heir Apparent, in ratification of the Annulment of the IIIrd and IVth Articles of the Treaty with England._

Relative to the articles III. and IV. of the propitious treaty between England and Persia, which was concluded by Mr. Ellis, in the month Zekaud, A.H. 1229, agreeably to the engagements entered into with your Excellency, that, in consequence of the sum of 200,000 tomauns, the currency of the country, presented as an aid to Persia, in consideration of the losses she has sustained in the war with Russia, we, the heir apparent, vested with full powers in all matters connected with the politics of this nation, have agreed that the said two articles shall be expunged, and have delivered a bond to your Excellency, which is now in your hands.

In the month of Zikeyla, A.H. 1243, on our going to wait upon His Majesty at Teheran, in consistence with the note addressed to your Excellency by Meerza Abul Hassan Khan, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, we were appointed sole agent in this matter by His Majesty, with unlimited authority; therefore, as the Government of England, through the medium of Colonel Macdonald, have afforded us the assistance of 200,000 tomauns, we, the representative of His Majesty, have, on this day, the 14th of the month Suffer, and the 24th of the Christian month August, annulled the two obnoxious articles of our propitious treaty. The envoy, considering this document as a ratification on the subject of the two articles, will know that it is liable to no further comment from the ministers of His Majesty’s Court.

Sealed by Month of Suffer, A. H. 1244. H. R. H. ABBAS MEERZA.

_Firmaun from His Majesty the Shah to Colonel Macdonald, British Envoy in Persia._

A.C.

Let it be known to Colonel Macdonald, the English envoy, exalted by our munificence, that our noble son having represented to us his having recently come to an arrangement relative to the two articles of the treaty with England, we have ordered that what has been executed by our son, touching this transaction, in conformity with the firmaun of full powers granted to him by us, be confirmed by our royal ratification and consent; and we duly appreciate the exertions of your Excellency during the last year, which have obtained you the good-will of the Shah.

Regarding the crore of tomauns required for the redemption of Khoee, agreeably to what has been laid before us, H.R.H. Abbas Meerza has directed the payment of 400,000 tomauns by Mohamed Meerza; and we have besides instructed the remaining 100,000 tomauns to be delivered to Meerza Abul Hassan Khan, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for the purpose of being transmitted to you.

Your Excellency will, therefore, conceiving this firmaun as your security, become responsible for the payment of the above sum, which will be afterwards paid to you by the lord of exalted rank, Meerza Abul Hassan Khan. Also make known to us all your wishes.

Sealed by HIS MAJESTY FUTTEH ALEE SHAH.

[Vol. I., page 352.]

[The following is the passage, from Mr. Henry Torrens’ letters to the “Friend of India,” cited by his biographer, (Mr. James Hume), and referred to in a note to the above page.]

“On the sound historical basis of ‘general opinion’ and ‘well credited report’ you do me the honour of ascribing to me the creation of a policy which was a sound and wise one, _had it been carried out as devised_, and of which I only wish I could claim the authorship; but you will perhaps allow me to cite against ‘general opinion’ and ‘well credited report,’ the assurance of a late Cabinet Minister, Lord de Broughton, that _he_ was the author of the expedition, the which he undoubtedly was. Without this declaration publicly made, I could not state what follows.

“The facts now related for the first time are simply these. Mr. Macnaghten, with me for his under Secretary, most unwillingly accompanied the Governor-General in 1837 towards the North-West, in which his presence was not required. Mr. Macnaghten, in the conviction that with the peculiar turn of mind of the Governor-General, it were better for him to be with his Council, did his utmost to persuade his Lordship to return from Cawnpore to Calcutta, the rather that it was the famine year of 1837-38. Orders were at once given for our return, but countermanded. Before our arrival at Cawnpore, Mr. Macnaghten, pressed by his Lordship’s anxiety and uncertainties, had prepared a scheme, based upon the independent expedition of Shah Soojah in 1832—of which we often spoke together, with reference to the stormy aspect of the times,—which contained the germ of the famous Afghan expedition; the scope of this scheme was: 1. According to the policy of this Government in 1809, to interpose a friendly power in Central Asia between us and any invasive force from the West. 2. To exhibit the military resources of the Government which had experienced a dangerous decline in a native estimation. 3. To set at rest the frontier wars between Afghans and Sikhs which interfered with the extension of our trade. 4. To effect these objects by means of our pensioner, Shah Soojah, acting in concert with Runjeet Singh; settling through our mediation the claims of the latter on Scinde, and of the former on Cashmere and Peshawur; satisfying Runjeet as to his demand for Swat and Booneer, and purchasing from the Ameers of Scinde, by relieving them of tribute and vassalage to the Douranee Crown (Shah Soojah’s), the complete opening of the Indus navigation, and the abolition of all tolls. 5. To establish in the person of a subsidized Monarch in Afghanistan so firm an ally at the head of a military people as might assure us that, in the event of Runjeet’s death, the Sikhs would find occupation on the frontiers of Peshawur, for so large a portion of their army as might materially interfere with the assemblage of an imposing force on our own frontier. 6. To pass into Afghanistan, as Shah Soojah had done in 1832, by the Bolan Pass, place him on his throne, subsidized at twenty lakhs a year, and march home through the Punjab, showing our power.

“Such was the project submitted, rather to propose _something_ to the Governor-General in his uncertainty, than to suggest a plan for absolute adoption. A few days afterwards, Mr. Macnaghten told me, that his Lordship had peremptorily rejected it, saying, “_such a thing was not to be thought of_.” Some fortnight or three weeks afterwards, letters arrived, I believe from Her Majesty’s Ministers in England, suggesting various schemes of diversion in the East as respected the aggressive views of Persia in connection with a great European power;—one, I believe, was analagous to that suggested by Mr. Macnaghten, and it was then Lord Auckland asked for the paper which had been previously submitted to him. I never saw it again after that time; but on it was framed a scheme in consonance with the views of Her Majesty’s Ministers _which was approved by them and acted on_; but which only contemplated the expedition to, not the occupation of, Afghanistan, and it was the change of policy which fathered our disasters. My duties, which as under and officiating Secretary were purely executive, brought me subsequently much into official contact with the Governor-General, but not until after the policy had been decided upon as respected Afghanistan, and so thoroughly decided, that Mr. Macnaghten was ascending the hill with the tripartite treaty in his pocket, at the time when ‘well credited report’ represents ‘some body’—myself—as rushing down the hill _to tell him of the adoption during his absence, of the policy on which the treaty in his pocket was founded_! I well recollect the subsequent discussions and difficulties as to execution, and in these Clerk, Wade, Colvin, Mackeson, Burnes, D’Arcy Todd, Lord, and others had a share. Of those curious councils it does not behove me to speak—save that previous to one I remember poor Burnes making his fifth suggestion within the week, to the effect that ‘we had but to send Shah Soojah to the mouth of the Khyber Pass with two battalions of Sepoys, and the Afghans would carry him through it in their arms,’[362] when I recollect saying with some asperity—‘surely it is better not to confuse high authority with fresh plans, when all our energies are needed to carry out the one decided upon.’ As you have honoured me with the title of adviser of Lord Auckland, and given me the opportunity of divesting myself of the unreal credit or discredit, as you may decide it to be, before the expedition was decided upon, I will in justice to myself record with you, two of the few opinions I ever had the opportunity of delivering _after_ it began; the one was strongly against the fortification of Herat, the other strongly against the admission of English women of any rank into Afghanistan, for giving each of which I was strongly reprimanded, and from this anecdote I leave you to conclude the slight amount of my utility out of my strict line of duty.”

* * * * *

[If there is anything in this at variance with the statements in my narrative, the reader will now have an opportunity of comparing the one with the other, and forming his own judgment. It is necessary only to observe that there are two distinct questions to be considered, and that it rather appears that Mr. Torrens has evaded the more important one, and the one, too, with which he is more immediately concerned. The scheme of the tripartite treaty is one thing, the march of a British army on Caubul by way of the Bolan Pass is another. Mr. Torrens appeals triumphantly to the fact that at a time when he and others are represented (by Mr. Masson) as rushing down the hill to tell Mr. Macnaghten of the adoption of the policy of the war, he (Mr. Macnaghten) was ascending the hill with the treaty in his pocket founded on that policy. But, in the first place, the story to which Mr. Torrens refers (and which will be found in a note at page 353 of this volume) was not told with respect to Mr. Macnaghten’s, but to Captain Burnes’s, arrival at Simlah, in Mr. Macnaghten’s absence. And in the second place, the policy into which Lord Auckland is said to have been persuaded at this time was not the policy of the tripartite treaty, but the policy of marching a British army into Afghanistan. It will have been seen that when Mr. Macnaghten negociated the treaty with Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah, it was no part of the scheme that the restoration of the Shah should be mainly accomplished by our British bayonets. This was obviously an after-thought. The question then is, how it arose—how “the army of the Indus,” to which Macnaghten at Lahore and Loodhianah had never once alluded, grew into a substantial fact. This is not explained by Mr. Torrens: I therefore leave the statements in the text of my narrative as they were originally written, and I will only add in this place—what I could produce living testimony of the highest order to prove—that when the war in Afghanistan was believed to be a grand success, Mr. Torrens boasted, not merely of his participation in the councils from which it emanated, but of the actual authorship of the war. He said, indeed, _totidem verbis_, that he “made the Afghan war,” an assertion which need not be taken too literally, but which, at all events, warrants the presumption that he counselled and approved the war in the shape in which it was undertaken. K.]

[Vol. I., page 356.]

[The following is the letter from Sir A. Burnes referred to in this page.]

_Husn Abdul, 2nd June, 1838_, MY DEAR MR. MACNAGHTEN,

Just as I was entering this place, I had the pleasure to receive your letter of the 23rd, requesting me to state my views on the means of counteraction which should be presented to Dost Mahomed Khan, in the policy that he is pursuing. I should have liked to have conversed with you on this important subject, for it has so many bearings, and involves so many conflicting interests, that it is impossible to do it justice; but I do not delay a moment in meeting your wishes, as far as can be done in a letter.

It is clear that the British Government cannot, with any credit or justice to itself, permit the present state of affairs at Caubul to continue. The counteraction applied must, however, extend beyond Dost Mahomed Khan, and to both Persia and Russia. A demand of explanation from the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh would, I conceive, be met by an evasive answer, and gain for us no end; besides, the policy of Russia is now fairly developed, and requires no explanation, for it explains itself, since that government is clearly resolved upon using the influence she possesses in Persia (which is as great there as what the British command in India), to extend her power eastward. It had better, therefore, be assumed at once that such are her plans, and remonstrate accordingly. If we can do but little with Russia, the cause is widely different with Persia. She should at once be warned off Afghanistan, and our continuance of an alliance with her should depend upon her compliance. I believe that a letter from the Governor-General of India, sent to the Shah of Persia at Herat, would gain our end, and this effected, there is nothing to fear from the proceedings of Dost Mahomed Khan, or any other of the Afghan chiefs. If this be left undone, they will succumb to Persia and Russia, and become the instruments for whatever those powers desire. I therefore distinctly state my conviction that the evil lies beyond Afghanistan itself, and must be dealt with accordingly.

If it is the object of government to destroy the power of the present chief of Caubul, it may be effected by the agency of his brother, Sultan Mahomed Khan, or of Soojah-ool-Moolk; but to ensure complete success to the plan, the British Government must appear directly in it; that is, it must not be left to the Sikhs themselves. Let us discuss the merits of these two plans; but first I must speak on the establishment of Sikh power in Afghanistan, to which you refer as a general question.

No one entertains a more exalted opinion than I do of the Maharajah’s head to plan, and ability to achieve; but I look upon the power of the Sikhs beyond the Indus to be dependent on his life alone. It is mere temporising, therefore, to seek to follow up any such plan; and were this of itself not conclusive against it, the fact of its alienating the Afghan people, who are cordially disposed as a nation to join us, would be a sufficiently valid objection for not persevering in it. I conclude always that our object is to make the Afghans our own, and to guide Afghanistan by Afghans, not by foreigners. It is, I assure you, a mere visionary delusion to hope for establishing Sikh ascendancy in Caubul. For argument’s sake, I will admit that the Maharajah may take it; but how is it to be retained? Why, he cannot keep his ground with credit in Peshawur, and the Sikhs themselves are averse to service beyond the Indus. But facts are more illustrative than arguments; the French officers could not with safety leave their homes to an evening dinner whilst we were at Peshawur and our intercourse was confined to breakfasts. I saw this morning two tumbrils of money the followers of dozens of others, on their way to Peshawur to pay the troops, and the Maharajah only wishes a road of honour to retreat from it. If you use him, therefore, as an agent to go further a-head, the first request he will make of the British will be for money, and we shall waste our treasure without gaining our ends, which, as I understand them, are an influence in Caubul, to exclude all intrigues from the West.

Of Sultan Mahomed Khan, the first instrument at command, you will remember that his brother Dost Mahomed, plainly confessed his dread of him if guided by Sikh gold, and with such aid the ruler of Caubul may be readily destroyed; but Sultan Mahomed has not the ability to rule Caubul; he is a very good man, but incapable of acting for himself; and though fit as an instrument in getting rid of a present evil, he would still leave affairs as unsettled as ever when fixed in Caubul, and he is consequently a very questionable agent to be used at all.

As for Soojah-ool-Moolk personally,[363] the British Government have only to send him to Peshawur with an agent, and two of its own regiments as an honorary escort, and an avowal to the Afghans that we have taken up his cause, to ensure his being fixed for ever on his throne. The present time is, perhaps, better than any previous to it, for the Afghans as a nation detest Persia, and Dost Mahomed having gone over to the Court of Teheran, though he believes it to be from dire necessity, converts many a doubting Afghan into a bitter enemy.

The Maharajah’s permission has only, therefore, to be asked for the ex-king’s advance on Peshawur, granting him at the same time some four or five of the regiments which have no Sikhs in their ranks, and Soojah becomes king. He need not remove from Peshawur, but address the Khyburees, Kohistanees of Caubul, and all the Afghans from that city, that he has the co-operation of the British and the Maharajah, and with but a little distribution of ready money—say two or three lakhs of rupees—he will find himself the real King of the Afghans in a couple of months. It is, however, to be remembered always that we must appear directly, for the Afghans are a superstitious people, and believe Soojah to have no fortune (bukht); but our name will invest him with it. You will also have a good argument with the Maharajah in the honour of “Taj Bukhshie;” but still his Highness will be more disposed to use Sultan Mahomed Khan as an instrument than Soojah, for he will, perhaps, have exaggerated notions of Afghan power in prospect; but our security must be given to him, and we must identify ourselves with all the preceedings to make arrangements durable.

I have thus pointed out to you how the chief of Caubul is to be destroyed, and the best means which have occurred to me for effecting it; but I am necessarily ignorant of the Governor-General’s views on what his Lordship considers the best mode of hereafter managing Afghanistan. It has been notified to me in various despatches, that this end may best be gained by using one small state to balance another, to keep all at peace, and thus prevent any great Mahomedan power growing up beyond the Indus, which might cause future inconvenience. It is with every respect that I differ; but these are not my sentiments, and though in theory nothing may appear more just and beneficial, I doubt the possibility of putting the theory into practice, and more than doubt the practice producing the benefit expected from it; for while you were trying to bring it about, another power steps in, paves the way for destroying the chiefships in detail, and the policy along with it. Our fears of a powerful Mahomedan neighbour are quickened by what we read of Ahmed Shah’s wars in India, and the alarms spread even by Shah Zemaun, so late as the days of Lord Wellesley; but our knowledge of these countries has wondrously improved since that time; and though the noble Marquis, in his splendid administration, made the Afghans feel our weight through Persia, and arrested the evil, we should have had none of these present vexations if we had dealt with the Afghans themselves. We then counteracted them through Persia. We now wish to do it through the Sikhs. But as things stand, I maintain it is the best of all policy to make Caubul _in itself as strong as we can make it_, and not weaken it by divided power; it has already been too long divided. Caubul owed its strength in bygone days to the tribute of Cashmere and Sindh. Both are irrevocably gone; and while we do all we can to keep up the Sikhs as a power east of the Indus during the Maharajah’s life, or afterwards, we should consolidate Afghan power west of the Indus, and have a King and not a collection of chiefs. _Divide et impera_ is a temporising creed at any time; and if the Afghans are united, we and they bid defiance to Persia, and instead of distant relations, we have everything under our eye, and a steadily progressing influence all along the Indus.

I have before said, that we cannot with justice to our position in India allow things to continue as at present in Caubul; and I have already, in my despatch of the 30th April, suggested a prompt and active counteraction of Dost Mahomed Khan, since we cannot act with him. But it remains to be reconsidered why we cannot act with Dost Mahomed. He is a man of undoubted ability, and has at heart a high opinion of the British nation; and if half you must do for others were done for him, and offers made which he could see conduced to his interests, he would abandon Persia and Russia to-morrow. It may be said that that opportunity has been given to him, but I would rather discuss this in person with you, for I think there is much to be said for him. Government have admitted that at best he had but a choice of difficulties; and it should not be forgotten that we promised nothing, and Persia and Russia held out a great deal. I am not now viewing the question in the light of what is to be said to the rejection of our good offices as far as they went, or to his doing so in the face of a threat held out to him; but these facts show the man has something in him; and if Afghans are proverbially not to be trusted, I see no reason for having greater mistrust of him than of others. My opinion of Asiatics is, that you can only rely upon them when their interests are identified with the line of procedure marked out to them; and this seems now to be a doctrine pretty general in all politics.

I shall say no more at present. It will give me great pleasure again to meet you. I shall be on the banks of the Jhelam on the 7th or 8th, and my progress beyond that depends on the dawk being laid: but if that goes right, I ought to join you in ten days at the furthest.

Believe me, my dear Mr. Macnaghten, Yours sincerely, ALEXANDER BURNES.

P.S.—I have thought it advisable to send a duplicate of this letter, which Mr. Lord has been so good as to copy for me, by the Maharajah’s dawk, as it prevents accidents, and may reach you sooner.

END OF VOL. I

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] In most cases I have had the original letters and documents in my possession—in the rest, authenticated copies. The translations are official translations, verified, in some of the most important instances, as in the treaties in Book V., by one of the most accomplished Persian scholars in the kingdom.

[2] And again in the cold weather of 1798-99 he advanced as far as Lahore, but was recalled by the invasion of Khorassan by the Persian troops. Lord Wellesley had by this time succeeded to the government of India. The danger was then considered sufficiently cogent to call for an augmentation of the native army.

[3] I find this fact, which however is to be referred rather to dread of the Mahrattas than to hatred of the British, stated, among other answers to queries put in 1800-1 by Captain Malcolm to Mahomed Sadik.—_MS._

[4] Of the two, perhaps, Lord Wellesley regarded the movements of the Douranee monarch with the livelier concern. Sir John Shore wrote: “Report speaks of an invasion of Hindostan by Zemaun Shah, and with respect to his intention is entitled to credit.... The execution of his intentions will be hazardous unless he can obtain the co-operation of the Sikhs and hostages for the continuance of it; and I have great doubt as to his success.” Lord Wellesley, two or three years later, spoke of the threatened invasion “creating the liveliest sensation throughout India;” and added, “Every Mahomedan, even in the remotest region of the Deccan, waited with anxious expectation for the advance of the champion of Islam.”

[5] Men who lived to occupy a space in history, as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Barry Close, and Sir Thomas Munro. Malcolm was Secretary to the Commission, and Munro his assistant.

[6] “Captain Malcolm,” he wrote to the Secret Committee, “returned from his embassy in the month of May, after having completely succeeded in accomplishing every object of his mission, and in establishing a connection with the government of the Persian Empire, which promises to the interests of the British nation in India political and commercial advantages of the most important description.”—[_MS. Records._]

[7] A writer in the _Calcutta Review_, who betrays an acquaintance with his subject such as could only have been acquired in the countries of which he writes, or by the examination of an immense mass of contemporary records, justly observes: “That the storm was dissipated in the manner suggested by Lord Wellesley was creditable to his lordship’s foresight, but was entirely independent of his measures. The second expedition of Futteh Ali Khan into Khorassan in 1800, which drew Shah Zemaun from Candahar to Herat, took place almost simultaneously with Captain Malcolm’s journey from the south of Persia to the capital. His majesty received the British mission at Subzewar; and the subsequent proceedings of Shah Mahmood, which led, in the sequel, to his dethronement, so far from originating in British instigation or in Persian support, were in reality indebted for their success to their entire independence of all foreign aid. As the minion of Persia, Shah Mahmood could never have prevailed against his elder brother. As the popular Douranee champion he was irresistible.”—[_Calcutta Review_, vol. xii.] Malcolm was at Shiraz in June, 1800, when he received intelligence of the Shah’s successes in Khorassan.

[8] _MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm._

[9] Before Malcolm left Shiraz he began to have some misgivings on the score of his lavish expenditure. “I trust I will not disappoint your hopes,” he writes from that place, under date July 26, 1800, “but the expense I have incurred is heavy, and it is on that score alone I am alarmed. Not that it is one farthing more than I have to the best of my judgment thought necessary to answer, or rather further, the ends of my mission, and to support the dignity of the British Government; but people sometimes differ in their opinions on such points. However, ‘All’s well that ends well.’”—[_MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm._]

[10] _Brigadier-General Malcolm to Lord Minto, October, 1810._

[11] Kishm is a large island, and Angani a small one at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. They properly belonged to the Arabs. Kharrack is at the further end of the Gulf, nearly opposite Bushire.

[12] _MS. Correspondence._—In another letter Malcolm says: “Had I to do with men of sense and moderation I should not fear, but I have to deal with a race that are possessed of neither.” The necessity of adopting in all his negotiations the most flowery language, somewhat puzzled him at first; but in time he fell into the right vein of discourse. On one occasion, wishing to demonstrate the advantages of simplicity of style, he produced a copy of an Indian treaty, when the Meerza, after reading two articles of it, declared that he would “give in his resignation to his sovereign rather than that such a document should be copied into the records of the office over which he presided.”

[13] These treaties, which have never been officially published, are printed for the first time I believe in the appendix to Vol. I., “Life of Sir John Malcolm.”

[14] There was a considerable trade in horses; but rather through than from Afghanistan. The animals were brought from Balkh and Toorkistan, fattened at Caubul, and sold in India.

[15] “Five or six cafilas of this indigo leave the Derajat annually, which on an average consist of seven hundred camels, each carrying eighty Tabrizee maunds. These come into Persia by the route of Candahar and Herat.”—[_Mahomed Sadik’s Answers to Captain Malcolm, 1800-1_ (_MS._).]

[16] And even this obligation ceased to be recognised by Ahmed Shah, who paid the Douranee horsemen for their services, alleging that their lands had been bestowed upon them as a free and unencumbered gift. In Zemaun Shah’s time they held pay-certificates, available when they were called out on active service, and realised, if they could, the amount due to them by means of orders on Cashmere, Mooltan, and other outlying provinces.—[_MS. Records—Rawlinson and Malcolm._]

[17] Or, more strictly, for every parcel of land demanding the services of a single _kulba_, or plough; from which the division of land, and the assessment founded upon it, took its name.

[18] To an elaborate report on the revenue system of Western Afghanistan, especially as affecting the Douranee tribes, drawn up by Major Rawlinson in 1842, I am indebted for much valuable information, which will be found incorporated with subsequent portions of the narrative.

[19] The authority for this, according to Malcolm’s informant, was the Caubul records. Forster, who travelled in Afghanistan in the reign of Timour Shah, says that his entire army did not exceed 30,000 men, nor his revenue a million of our money. How these men contrived to pay themselves, may be gathered from a passage in Forster’s Travels, which is worth transcribing: “This day a body of Afghan cavalry encamped in the environs of Akorah, and overspread the country like a swarm of locusts, devouring and destroying wherever they went. It seemed as if the land was invaded; they entered in a violent manner every village within their scope, and fed themselves and horses at the expense of the inhabitants. Such expeditions afford these hungry creatures almost the only means of subsistence; for when inactive, they are often reduced to such distress by the blind parsimony of their prince, that their horses, arms, and clothes, are sold for a livelihood.” The same writer, speaking generally of the Afghan army, says that he “felt a sensible disappointment at seeing it composed of a tumultuous body, without order or common discipline.”

[20] And even the character of Futteh Khan was at that time very little understood and appreciated. He was described to Captain Malcolm as a man of influence, but of low, dissipated habits, who spent all his time in drinking wine and in smoking bang. It should be mentioned that Prince Ferooz, Mahmoud’s brother, was associated in this enterprise. He became master of Herat, whilst Mahmoud pushed on to Candahar.

[21] The Kuzzilbashes, of whom frequent mention will be made in the course of this narrative, are Persian settlers in Afghanistan; many of whom are retained in the military service of the state.

[22] Since this passage was written, I have had reason to think that it ought to be accepted with some qualification. In October, 1840, when Dost Mahomed was flitting about the Kohistan, and the greatest anxiety prevailed among our political officers at Caubul, Shah Soojah said to Sir William Macnaghten, just as he was taking leave after an excited conference, “You know I have from the first expressed to you a mean opinion of my own countrymen. If you want further proof, look at that from my own brother.” The Shah then showed Macnaghten an intercepted letter, bearing the seal of Shah Zemaun, to the address of Sultan Mahomed Barukzye, purposing that, as Shah Soojah had made over the country to the infidels, the Barukzyes and the Sikhs united should make him (Shah Zemaun) King of Afghanistan.—[_Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._] This story may seem to be at variance with the statement in the preceding page,—that “between a blind king and a dead king there is no political difference;” but I am acquainted with no Mahomedan law that excludes a blind prince from the throne. The exclusion is based upon the popular assumption that blindness disqualifies a man from managing the affairs of an empire. If, however, in Mahomedan countries, there have been no exceptions to this rule—of which I am doubtful—in the regal line, it is certain that many provincial governments have been in the hands of men who have been deprived of their sight. The case of Shah Allum, the blind King of Delhi, is hardly to the point; for during the years of his darkness, his royalty was only a name.

[23] This was in July, 1803. Shah Soojah’s own account of these transactions, which forms part of the autobiography written by him at Loodhianah in 1826-27, is contained in the following words:-“After our arrival at Kazee, we had scarcely prepared our force, when Futteh Khan’s army appeared; our troops immediately were drawn up in battle array, and an attack made upon them. The battle lasted from the morning to the evening prayer, when the enemy gave way, and retreated in great disorder to the valley Advaz, and then to Kamran’s camp in Candahar, where the drunkenness of the Kuzzilbash soldiery, and the ill-treatment which the Soonee doctors received, soon disgusted all our subjects, who entirely refused to give Kamran assistance. On hearing this we immediately returned to our capital. Shah Mahmoud was so disheartened by the news of our victory, that after swearing on the Koran he would not again be guilty of treachery, he sent some of his principal attendants to request the royal pardon, which we granted; and had him conveyed from the outer to the inner fort with all due respect to his rank. We then entered the Balla Hissar with regal pomp, and seated ourselves on the throne of Caubul.” Mr. Elphinstone says of this “victory,” that “Futteh Khan was at first successful; he routed the party of the enemy which was immediately opposed to him, and was advancing to the city, when the desertion of a great lord to Soojah threw the whole into confusion: his own party then fell off by degrees, till he found himself almost alone, and was compelled to provide for his safety by a precipitate flight. Next morning Shah Soojah entered Caubul in triumph. Mooktor-ood-Dowlah walked on foot by the side of his horse, and many other Douranee ameers followed in his train.”—[_Elphinstone’s “Caubul”—Appendix._]

[24] “While in Candahar,” writes Shah Soojah, “we received letters from our beloved brother Shah-zadah Mooktor-ood-Dowlah, requesting Prince Kaysur’s pardon, as his inexperience and the advice of Futteh Khan and other rebels had led him from his duty. Out of respect to our brother we agreed to this. Prince Kaysur being in Dehleh, Shah Zemaun and Mooktor-ood-Dowlah went there and brought him into the presence. Shah Zemaun then requested that we would give him Candahar once more, and became security for his good behaviour in future. We agreed to this in spite of our good judgment.” It was whilst still engaged with the settlement of affairs at Candahar, not after their complete adjustment, and Soojah’s subsequent expedition to Sindh (as stated by Mr. Elphinstone), that ambassadors arrived at Bokhara to negotiate a marriage between the Khan’s daughter and the Shah. “A suitable answer,” says the Shah, “being given to the royal letter, and dresses of honour being given to the ambassadors, we dismissed them with gifts. _Our thoughts were then directed to the state of Candahar._” The point is of little importance in Afghan history; and only worth noticing in illustration of the difficulty of determining with precision, the dates of different events, and the order in which they occurred. No two narratives altogether agree—but except where Shah Soojah speaks of his “victories,” we may regard him as a tolerably good authority in all that relates to himself.

[25] The number of Oriental names which it is necessary to introduce—the repetition of incidents, greatly resembling each other, of conquest and re-conquest, of treachery and counter-treachery, of rebellions raised and suppressed—creates a confusion in the mind of the European reader. It is difficult to interest him in these indistinct phantasmagoric transitions. The events, too, which I have narrated have been chronicled before. I have endeavoured, however, to impart some novelty to the recital by following, and sometimes quoting, Shah Soojah’s autobiography, which was not accessible to preceding historians.

[26] Hadjee Khalil Khan reached Bombay on the 21st of May, 1802, and was killed on the 20th of July.

[27] _MS. Correspondence._

[28] “I shall send,” wrote Major Malcolm, “Mr. Pasley with the Hadjee’s body, which will not only be considered a high compliment, but be useful in a thousand ways. It will preserve this transaction from the _touch_ of Mr. Manesty and Mr. Jones. It will enable me to convey a correct state of the feeling here on the subject to many respectable Persians, and I shall obtain from Mr. P. a true account of the manner in which the transaction is received in Persia. He will give Lovett information which will secure him from error at the outset, and be of the highest utility to him during his residence in India.”—[_MS. Correspondence._] It is not certain, however, that the high compliment here designed was duly appreciated by the Persians. Sir Harford Jones (from whose “touch” the transaction was to be preserved) says that “it seems to have escaped Marquis Wellesley that that which might be considered a compliment at Calcutta, might in Arabia, Turkey, and Persia, be regarded as so improper as almost to become an insult..... The Persian moollahs as well as the Persian merchants at Bagdad, were shocked, and on my applying to old Sulemein Pacha for certain honours to be paid to the corpse, when removed from Bagdad to be carried to Nejeef, he said, ‘Very well: as you desire it to be done, it shall be done: but Hadjee Khalil Khan lived an infidel, and with infidels, and was, therefore, destined to hell; he was, however, murdered by infidels, and so became a _shahyde_ (martyr); but his former friends have robbed him of this chance, by deputing an infidel to attend his corpse to the grave; his fate, therefore, is now fixed, and you may carry him to the devil in any manner you like best.’”—[_Sir Harford Jones’s account of the transactions of H. M.’s mission to the Court of Persia, &c. Note_ vii.] It is curious, but somewhat humiliating, to read the different versions of the same transactions put forth by Jones and Malcolm, and their respective adherents. For example, Sir Harford Jones says that when the Hadjee’s body reached Bagdad, Mr. Day, a Bombay civilian, who had been deputed to accompany it into the interior, took fright at the plague, and abandoned his charge. “Mr. Day’s alarm was so great,” he says, “as to become most tormenting to himself, and most ridiculous and troublesome to us, who had stood the plague the preceding year. I, therefore, re-shipped him for Bussorah as soon as possible, and undertook to receive and execute such wishes as the Khan’s relatives expressed to me.” Now the account given of this matter by one of the gentlemen of Malcolm’s mission, sets forth that “Jones had frightened away Mr. Day by alarming accounts of the plague.”-“On this subject,” it was added, “I need make no remarks to you, who know him so well. This might be improper, and would, I imagine, be perfectly unnecessary.” I have dwelt upon these personal matters at greater length than they deserve, because they illustrate the feelings, on either side, with which Jones and Malcolm, at a later and more important period, were likely each to have regarded the parallel but antagonistic mission of the other to the Persian Court. The bitterness which then overflowed was the accumulated gall of years.

[29] Especial instructions having been given to the British mission to secure the appointment of a man of rank as successor to Khalil Khan, the intrigues of Aga Nebee to obtain the appointment greatly embarrassed our diplomatists in Persia. But it was acknowledged that the aspirant was a man of good temper, good abilities, and more than average respectability. He professed himself to be heart and soul the friend of the English; and, doubtless, was perfectly sincere in his attachment to their wealth and profusion. Like all his countrymen, he was capable of profound dissimulation, and lied without the slightest remorse. Knowing the views of the British functionaries with regard to the succession, he sent through his brother to Mr. Lovett an account of an interview he had had with the Shah, representing that he had urged upon his majesty the propriety of appointing an elchee of high rank as successor to Hadjee Khalil Khan, but that the king had insisted upon appointing him. In the same letter an amusing attempt is made to persuade Mr. Lovett to proceed to Teheran as an ambassador from the British-Indian Government, “with handsome and splendid equipments, so as to exceed by many degrees those with which Major Malcolm travelled: for this is the particular wish of the king and his ministers, in order that it may get abroad universally that the English had, for the sake of apologising, made these new preparations far exceeding the former, and that it is evident they highly regard the friendship of the king, and were not to blame for the death of Hadjee Khalil Khan. His majesty, too, when he hears of the splendour and greatness of your retinue, will be much pleased, and most favourably inclined.... _Do not be sparing in expenditure, or presents, or largesses. Every country has its customs; and every nation may be won somehow or other. The people of Persia in the manner above stated._” It is hard to say which is to be most admired, the candour or the craft of this.—[_MS. Records._]

[30] Some French agents, under the feigned character of botanists, had visited Teheran before Buonaparte invaded Egypt, and wished Aga Mahomed Khan, the then ruler of Persia, to seize Bussorah and Bagdad. They also endeavoured to stimulate the Shah to assist Tippoo Sultan against the British, and endeavoured to obtain permission to re-establish their footing at Gombroon. Had the emissaries appeared in a more openly diplomatic character, they might have succeeded, for Aga Mahomed Khan coveted the territory named, and might have been induced to co-operate in an attack upon the Turkish dominions; but the doubtful character of the agents thwarted their schemes, and he gave little heed to the representations of the _savans_.—[See _Brigadier Malcolm to Lord Minto: MS. Records_.]

[31] General Gardanne’s suite, according to Colonel Malcolm, consisted of “twenty-five officers, two clergymen, a physician, some artillery and engineer officers, thirty European sub-officers, and a number of artificers.”—[_MS. Records._]

[32] Malcolm wrote from Bombay on the 15th of April, stating the course of policy he intended to pursue, and the tone of remonstrance he purposed to adopt, at the same time urging the Governor-General to suspend the mission of Sir Harford Jones. In this letter he says that he should despair, “from his knowledge of Sir Harford’s character and former petty animosities on the same scene, of maintaining concord and unanimity in the gulf one hour after his arrival. Sir Harford,” he added, “is not in possession of that high local respect and consideration in the countries to which he is deputed that should attach to a national representative.”

[33] _MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm._

[34] _MS. Records._—Copies of these letters were obtained by the Mission, and are now before me. I do not find in them anything to give colour to the suspicion that it was intended forcibly to detain Pasley at Shiraz. But such appears to have been the impression at the time, and may have been the case. Sir James Mackintosh, writing from Bombay to his son-in-law, Mr. Rich, at Bagdad, counsels him to be prepared for a rapid retreat, and adds, “Pasley was very nearly made prisoner at Shiraz.”

[35] _MS. Records._

[36] “General Malcolm came round to Calcutta in August to communicate the information he had been able to collect, leaving his secretary at Abushire, who was obliged subsequently to quit the place to prevent his person being seized by the Persian Government, instigated by the French agents.”—[_From letter of Instructions sent by Supreme Government to Mountstuart Elphinstone, in 1809._—_MS. Records._]

[37] Another passage from this letter is worth quoting in the margin:-“What I doubt (for I presume to go no further), is, whether it be for our interest to force on the course of events in the present circumstances. You are a man of frank character and high spirit, accustomed to represent a successful and triumphant government. You must from nature and habit be averse to temporise. But you have much too powerful an understanding to need to be told, that to temporise is sometimes absolutely necessary, and that men of your character only can temporise with effect. When Gentz was in England, in 1803 (during the peace), he said to me, that ‘it required the present system, and the late ministers;’ for nothing required the reality and the reputation of vigour so much as temporising.”—[_Mackintosh to Malcolm, July 13, 1808._]

[38] The first letter appears to have been written on the 10th of August. On the 22nd, Brigadier Malcolm landed at Calcutta. On the same day a letter was sent to Sir Harford Jones, directing him to wait for further orders, and on the 29th another and more urgent communication was addressed to him, with the intent of annulling his mission. It appears that in those days a letter took more than three weeks to accomplish the journey between Calcutta and Bombay. The Governor-General’s letter of the 10th of August must have reached the latter place about the 5th of September. Jones says, “In seven days from receiving Lord Minto’s letter, I embarked on board _La Nereide_, and she, with the _Sapphire_, and a very small vessel belonging to the Company, called the _Sylph_, sailed out of Bombay harbour for Persia on the 12th of September, 1808.” Malcolm had calculated that the letter of August 22nd would reach Bombay by September 13th; and that in all probability Jones would not embark before that date. But, as usual, he was over-sanguine.

[39] _MS. Correspondence._

[40] _MS. Correspondence._

[41] For example, in one of his minutes written about this time, he says: “It appears doubtful whether the partition of European Turkey will precede the French expedition to India. There appears to be reason, by the late advices, to suppose that the consent of the Porte may have been obtained to the passage of the French army. In this case, the approach of the army may be earlier than on the former supposition, and it will have less difficulty to encounter. The route of our divisions must in this event be through the territory of Bagdad.... I incline, under all the circumstances now known to me, to think that the force stationed at Karrack should be greater than we before looked to.”—[_MS. Records._]

[42] _MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm._

[43] In one of these letters, written in February, 1809, it is said: “I cannot venture to omit acquainting you that, in the event of your not complying, without further reference or delay, with the instructions conveyed in this letter, by closing your mission and retiring from Persia, it has been determined, and measures have been taken accordingly, to disavow your public character in that country subsequent to your receipt of my letter of 31st of October.”—[_MS. Records._]

[44] _MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm_—_December 24, 1808._

[45] Mr. Lumsden wrote a minute (July 10, 1809), in which he says: “We must either continue to employ at the Court of Persia an agent in whom we have no confidence, who has studiously endeavoured to degrade the authority of the Government of India, under whose orders he was placed; or by deputing an agent of our own to Teheran, whilst he continues there acknowledged by the Persian Government as the representative of his Britannic Majesty, we may expose the public interest to danger from the presence in Persia of two distinct authorities, who cannot act in concert, but will, it is to be feared, necessarily counteract each other, and occasion great perplexity to the Persian minister.” At the same time, Mr. Colebrooke wrote: “Our situation as regards Sir H. Jones is certainly difficult and embarrassing in the extreme. We are desirous of fulfilling the engagements he has contracted, and of maintaining the alliance concluded by him. And we are glad that he should continue at the Court of Persia to watch the wavering counsels of that Court, and to oppose the revival of French influence at it, until he can be replaced by our own envoy; but by either re-accrediting him with the Court, or silently executing his engagements, we acquiesce in the continued degradation of this government.”—[_MS. Records._]

[46] On the details of Malcolm’s supplementary mission it is unnecessary to dwell. Its political results are compressible into the smallest possible space. It was, indeed, a mere pageant; and a very costly, but not wholly a profitless one. It yielded a considerable harvest of literary and scientific results, among the most important of which may be mentioned Malcolm’s elaborate and valuable “History of Persia” and the present Sir Henry Pottinger’s admirable “Account of Beluchistan;” works which, it has been well said, “not only filled up an important blank in our knowledge of the East, but which materially helped to fix the literary character of the Indian services.”

[47] It is just to Sir John Malcolm that his views of this question of bribery, with reference to his proceedings and those of Sir H. Jones, should be given in his own words: “Everything then,” he wrote, “with Jones is a question of money. By cash alone all political questions are decided—one article of a treaty he values at so much, another has its price also. Is a French agent to be removed? the price of his dismissal is as regularly settled as the price of a horse. The dismissal of one (Monsieur Jouanin) has been purchased four times—three times by advances of subsidy, and once with 50,000 piastres to monsieur himself; and I suspect the convenient instrument of extortion is not yet far from Tabruz. This is a country in which one cannot go on without a large expenditure of money; but it should never form the basis of our connection, as it now does; and if we add to our large annual bribe (for a pecuniary subsidy over the application or which we have no control, must be considered such) disbursements on every occasion where Persia shows an inclination towards our enemies, we shall lose both our money and our reputation.”—[_Brigadier Malcolm to Mr. Manesty, Feb. 23, 1810._ _MS._]

[48] From 1826 to 1835, however, the nomination of the Persian envoy was again vested in the Indian Government; but the diplomatic control was not relinquished by the Foreign-office.

[49] “I doubt,” wrote Lord Minto, “whether his jealousy would permit him to admit, by treaty, our troops freely into his country, and to consent that we should establish such posts both in front against the enemy and elsewhere for the purpose of communication, as should render us independent of his fidelity. If he does not accede to this, we shall derive little benefit from his alliance.”—[_Minute of Lord Minto: MS. Records._]

[50] A remarkably able paper, on the disposal of the subsidiary force which, under the provisions of the defensive alliance with Scindiah, that prince had agreed to receive, drawn up by Mr. Metcalfe, in 1804, conduced more, perhaps, than anything else to confirm Lord Wellesley’s high opinion of the young civilian’s talents. On a copy of it now before me is the following marginal note, written in the Governor-General’s fine, bold, characteristic hand:-“This paper is highly creditable to Mr. Metcalfe’s character and talents. It may become very useful. A copy of it should be sent to the Commander-in-Chief, and another to Major Malcolm.—W.”

[51] “The Rajah coupled his acquiescence in the proposed arrangements of defence against an invading European army with the condition of being permitted to extend his dominions over all the Sikh territories between the Sutlej and the Jumna. He also provisionally demanded that the British Government should not interfere in favour of the King of Caubul in his aggressions against that monarch’s dominions—at the same time shackling the advance of the British troops into his country, and the establishment of the necessary depôts, with conditions which would render any engagements with him for that purpose entirely inefficient and nugatory. Even during the reference he made to government on these demands, he crossed the Sutlej to attack the Sikh territories. The extreme jealousy and suspicion of us evinced by the Rajah, together with his own conduct and ambitious character, rendered it indispensably necessary to resist his pretensions to sovereignty over the territories on this side of the Sutlej, and the Rajah was required to withdraw his army.”—[_Statement in Instructions to Mr Elphinstone: MS. Records._]

[52] “The point to aim at in our present transactions with the Rajah of Lahore,” wrote Lord Minto, “appears to be that we should keep ourselves as free as can be done without a rupture. I should, on this principle, rather wish to protract than to accelerate the treaty.”—[_Minute of Lord Minto: MS. Records._]

[53] “At the time when the proposal was made for the adjustment of differences, the forces on both sides remained quiet in sight of each other, when the news of the defeat of Junot (Duke of Abrantes) at Vimiera, by the British army, under Sir Arthur Wellesley, was received in the camps of General St. Leger and Colonel Ochterlony, and, as usual, celebrated by royal salutes. The cause of this firing being made known to Runjeet Singh, the salute was, by his special command, repeated from all the artillery in his camp—a circumstance which, whether it be attributed to politeness towards the British commanders, with whom he was in treaty, or to a general condemnation of the system of Buonaparte, was felt equally agreeable.”—[_Asiatic Annual Register._]

[54] An accidental collision between some of the Mahomedan sepoys of Mr. Metcalfe’s mission, and a far superior body of Sikhs, in which the inferiority of the latter was most unmistakeably demonstrated, had no inconsiderable effect upon the mind of Runjeet Singh, who was a spectator of the discomfiture of his countrymen.

[55] _MS. Records._

[56] Under date March 6, 1809.

[57] _MS. Records._ Another paragraph of these instructions is worth quoting. “Although there is not now the same immediate exigency for forming a friendly connexion with the Court of Caubul, yet that measure is of importance, and contains an object of sound policy, in the event, however remote, of either the French or any other European power endeavouring to approach India by that route.”

[58] It is worthy of remark in this place, that Mr. Strachey, who accompanied Mr. Elphinstone’s Mission in the capacity of secretary, and who on this as on other occasions evinced the possession of a high order of intellect, drew up a very able memorandum on the advantages of forming a connexion with Bahwul Khan. In this paper there occurs the following prescient passage:-“Bahwul Khan might also be induced, in the event of actual hostilities, to invade the territories of Runjeet Singh at any point we might suggest, and thereby form an important diversion, whilst the British army would be advancing from another quarter of the Sikh territory.”—[_MS. Records._]

[59] It is said that Mr. Elphinstone’s Mission received this hint from an European deserter, named Pensley, who had been entertained, in a military capacity, by Shah Soojah. They might have learnt the lesson from Mr. Forster, who, twenty years before, had travelled in Afghanistan. That enterprising gentleman, a civil servant of the Company, found his beard of the greatest service. He suffered it to grow for fifteen months, and had reason to regret that before he had wholly shaken off Eastern associations, he allowed the razor to profane it. Putting himself on board a Russian frigate in the Caspian, he thought that he might reduce his face to its old European aspect; but he tells us that “the Ghilan envoy, then proceeding on the frigate, expressed a surprise to see me, whom he thought a Mahomedan, eating at the same board with the Russian gentlemen; but when he saw a barber commencing an operation on my beard, which I took the opportunity of having shaved, he evinced great amazement and indignation; nor did he, until repeatedly informed of my real character, cease his reprehension of the act; during the process of which he threw on me many a look of contempt. When the barber began to cut off the moustachios, he several times, in a peremptory manner, required him to desist, and, seeing them gone, ‘Now,’ said he, ‘of whatever country or sect you may be, your disgrace is complete, and you look like a woman.’ Thus, after a growth of fifteen months fell my beard, which in that period had increased to a great magnitude, both in length and breadth, though it had been somewhat shrivelled by the severity of the late winter. When you advert to the general importance of an Asiatic beard, to the essential services which mine had rendered, and to our long and intimate association, I trust that this brief introduction of it to your notice will not be deemed impertinent. This operation of cutting it ought, however, to have been postponed till my arrival at Astracan.”

[60] It was the very costliness of these presents, and the lavish expenditure of the entire Mission, that gave the death-blow to the old system of diplomatic profusion. When the accounts of the Afghan and Persian Missions came before the Governor-General in Council, Lord Minto stood aghast at the enormous expenditure, and, in a stringent minute, recorded “his deliberate opinion, that the actual expenditure has far exceeded the necessity of the occasion—that the personal expenses of the envoys might have been limited with respect both to the nature and extent of the items composing them, and that the provision of articles for presents to an extent so enormous as that exhibited in the accounts of these Missions has been regulated by a principle of distribution unnecessarily profuse.”—[_MS. Records._]

[61] It is to be regretted that Shah Soojah’s own notices of the British Mission are very scanty. He says, in his autobiographical narrative, “On receiving intelligence that the English ambassadors had arrived at Kohat, we sent an appropriate party to meet and do them honour. On their arrival, we gave them suitable dwellings, and ordered their wants and wishes to be attended to. After a few days’ rest the ambassadors came to the presence, and presented various articles of European and Hindostanee workmanship, also many elephants with superb accoutrements. Dresses of honour were conferred on all. We gave strict orders that the Mission should be treated with every dignity, and our most confidential Ameers waited on them.... We learned that Shah Mahmoud had left Caubul, and halted at Chuk-Dilah. Hearing this, we immediately reflected on the state of the Company’s ambassadors. We resolved, first, to place them in a state and place of safety; and proceed to punish the rebels; and then, if God would grant a victory, we intended to return to treat them in a proper manner.”

[62] The Ameers had sent vakeels to Persia, seeking assistance against Caubul; and the Persian ambassador had accompanied them on their return to Sindh.

[63] Nor was this the only error into which Captain Seton had fallen. That officer was instructed, before Mr. Elphinstone’s Mission had been determined upon, to ascertain the practicability of sending an embassy to Candahar or Caubul, by the route of Sindh; and upon the strength of these instructions, had taken upon himself to address a letter to the King of Caubul, expressing the desire of the British Government to form an alliance with that monarch.

[64] I need scarcely write the names of Elphinstone and Pottinger—or allude to their respective works. Of the former statesman I have already spoken. The Lieutenant Henry Pottinger, who, early in the century, accompanied the Sindh Mission, and was attached to General Malcolm’s staff on his second visit to Persia, after passing, at a later stage of his career, from the management of the wild tribes of Beloochistan to play an intricate game of diplomacy with the flowery courtiers of the Celestial Empire, and thence to the control of the Caffre savages of Southern Africa, closed his public life in the more commonplace government of Madras.

[65] The Shah says: “Mokhum Chund, on the part of Runjeet Singh, informed us, that his master was anxious that we should proceed to Lahore as soon as at liberty, and visit the residence of our seraglio in that city; he also mentioned that his master’s fame would be increased by our going. According to Futteh Khan’s petition, we agreed to this, and marched towards Lahore with Mokhum Chund and other Singhs, whilst Futteh Khan returned to Shah Mahmoud in Caubul.”

[66] Shah Soojah records that the faithful Rajah, on the King announcing his determination to depart, “burst into tears. He urged the dangers of the road, his wish to sacrifice his wealth for us, and every excuse which affection could dictate, to prolong our stay.” “The Rajah,” he adds, “accompanied us two marches, and at parting, which took place in silence, tears stood in the eyes of both parties. We had no dress of honour, no khillaut worth his acceptance, but he accepted our thanks and blessing, and departed with every mark of grief.” Amidst so much of selfish rapacity and dark ingratitude as marks these annals of the Douranee Empire, it is a pleasure to chronicle such an episode as this in the history of Shah Soojah’s fortunes. I am too willing to believe the whole story to encourage any doubt of its authenticity. The free use, indeed, which I have made of Shah Soojah’s autobiography is sufficient proof of my belief in the general fidelity of the narrative. It was written by the Shah’s Moonshee, under his Majesty’s superintendence. I have quoted Lieutenant Bennett’s translation, as published in the _Calcutta Monthly Journal_. It supplies, at the same time, more interesting and more authentic materials of Afghan history than are to be found elsewhere, and to the majority of readers is probably as fresh as manuscript.

[67] “By an honorary or devotional vow of his mother he was consecrated to the lowest menial service of the sacred cenotaph of Lamech.... This cenotaph is known in the colloquial dialect of the country by the appellation of Meiter Lam. In conformity with the maternal vow, when the young aspirant became capable of wielding a brush, he was carried to Meiter Lam by his mother, and instructed to exonerate her from the consequences of a sacred obligation, by sweeping, for the period of a whole day, the votive area included within the precincts of the holy place inclosing the alleged tomb of the antediluvian, the father as he is termed of the prophet Noah.”—[_General Halan._]

[68] There are varying accounts respecting the identity of this lady. Mr. Vigne says that she was daughter of Timour Shah, and sister to Shah Mahmoud. Mohun Lall, probably with more correctness, places her in a lower generation—asserting that she was the sister of Prince Kamran, and the wife of Prince Malik Quasim, son of Ferooz-ood-Deen. There is something rather perplexing in these relationships. As Ferooz-ood-Deen was the brother of Shah Mahmoud, if Mr. Vigne’s account be correct, his son was the nephew of the lady in question.

[69] So Shah Soojah—who, however, does not allude to the outrage committed by Dost Mahomed. He merely says, “After the Kujjar campaign, Futteh Khan grew ambitious, and determined to take into his own hands the reins of government, and for this purpose resolved to ensnare Prince Kamran, who, hearing of the plot, seized Futteh Khan, put out his eyes with the point of a sharp dagger, and after performing on him an operation similar to the African mode of scalping, placed him in confinement.”—[_Autobiography._]

[70] _Calcutta Review._ This passage, with many others of the present chapter, is taken, with some additions and curtailments, from a biography of Dost Mahomed Khan, written a few years ago by the author of this work. As the article was the result of much research, and written at least with the greatest care, I do not know that I can much improve upon it. Of the circumstances attending the death of Futteh Khan, an elaborate account is given by Captain James Abbott in his “Journey to Khiva.” He received the story from Sumund Khan, “who had been much about the person of Shah Kamran.” I subjoin the closing scene of this tragic episode:-“Futteh Khan was brought into a tent, pitched between Herat and the river, (?) in which sat a circle of his mortal foes. They commenced by each in turn accusing him of the injuries received at his hands, and heaping upon him the most opprobrious epithets. Atta Mahmoud Khan then stepped up to him, and seizing one of his ears, cut it off with his knife, saying, ‘This is for such and such an injury done to such an one of my relatives.’ Shahagaussie Newaub cut off the other ear. Each, as he wreaked this unmanly vengeance upon the victim, whom he would have crouched to the day before, named the wrong of which it was the recompence; thus depriving him of the highest consolation the mind of man can possess under torment—the conscience void of offence. Another of the barbarians cut off his nose; Khana Moolla Khan severed his right hand; Khalook Dad Khan his left hand, the blood gushing copiously from each new wound. Summurdar Khan cut off his beard, saying, ‘This is for dishonouring my wife.’ Hitherto the high-spirited chief had borne his sufferings without either weakness or any ebullition of his excitable temper. He had only once condescended, in a calm voice, to beg them to hasten his death. The mutilation of ears and nose, a punishment reserved for the meanest offences of slaves, had not been able to shake his fortitude; but the beard of a Mahomedan is a member so sacred, that honour itself becomes confounded with it; and he who had borne with the constancy of a hero the taunts and tortures heaped upon him, seemed to lose his manhood with his beard, and burst into a passion of tears. His torments were now drawing to a close. Gool Mahomed Khan, with a blow of his sabre, cut off his right foot, and a man of the Populzye tribe severed the left. Attah Mahomed Khan finished his torments by cutting his throat.”

[71] This was in 1818. See close of the last chapter. “Azim Khan,” says Shah Soojah, in his autobiography, “sent us a fawning petition, informing us that he had collected all Futteh Khan’s relations, comprehending the whole of the Barukzye tribe, and swearing, by everything sacred, that he and the other chiefs had taken an oath of fidelity to us their lawful king, entreated that we would march immediately to Peshawur, where he would join the royal standard with all the troops and the treasury of Cashmere. We sent for Mr. Murray, and ordered him to make the Resident of Delhi acquainted with this, and inform us of their opinion. This opinion he gave us, some days afterwards, namely, ‘That for political reasons no assistance could be given, but that we were at liberty either to depart or remain in the asylum allotted to us.’ Two years had been passed in ease, and we now determined to make an attempt to reascend our throne.”

[72] Shah Soojah attributes his defeat to an accidental explosion of gunpowder. “Our attendants,” he says, “only amounted to 300, with two guns, but they had taken up an advantageous position on a bridge, near the garden. The Meer Akhor charged us with his horse; but the first fire from the cannon made him bite the dust, when an unfortunate accident happened. A large quantity of powder had been brought to be divided among the matchlock men. This caught fire, by which fifty men were blown up and others wounded. Resistance was now in vain, and we escaped with difficulty to the Khybur hills.”

[73] The story is worth giving in a note, as eminently characteristic of Afghan history. Dost Mahomed, who had proclaimed Sultan Ali king, advised that prince to murder Shah Ayoob; and Azim Khan advised Shah Ayoob to murder Sultan Ali. Sultan Ali indignantly rejected the proposal; Shah Ayoob consented, on condition that Azim Khan would return the compliment, by assassinating Dost Mahomed. This was agreed upon. Sultan Ali was strangled in his sleep. Shah Ayoob then called upon Azim Khan to perform his part of the tragedy; but the minister coolly asked, “How can I slay my brother?” and recommended a renewal of the expedition to Shikarpoor.

[74] Azim Khan does not appear to have recognised the strength of Dost Mahomed’s character; and to this grand error must be attributed his premature death. Shortly before the expedition to the Sikh frontier, he had not only contemptuously declared that he did not require the services of his brother, but had actually laid siege to Ghuzni. Azim Khan’s batteries caused great slaughter; but Dost Mahomed could not be persuaded to open the gates of the fortress. A negotiation took place; and the brothers embraced. But they never forgave each other.

[75] “One Haji Ali,” says Mr. Masson, “who is reported to have shot the Prince, despoiled the Shah of his raiments and clad him in his own; then by the Sirdar’s orders, placed him behind himself on a horse and carried him off to the Burj Vazir. A singular spectacle was offered to the people of the city as Haji Ali bore the degraded monarch along the streets; but they had become familiar with extraordinary events, and regarded them with apathy. The Sirdars, when they had given the orders consequent on the feat they had performed, returned to their dwellings in the city with the same composure after the deposition of a monarch, as if they had been enjoying a morning ride.” The unfortunate puppet subsequently found his way to Lahore, where Runjeet Singh allowed him a monthly pension of 1000 rupees.

[76] Masson.—Mr. Vigne says, that Dost Mahomed and Shere Dil Khan were the cherry-eaters. We do not pretend to determine the point.

[77] “The days,” says General Harlan—and the truth of the statement is not to be questioned-“That Dost Mahomed ascended the musnud, he performed the ‘Toba,’ which is a solemn and sacred formula of reformation, in reference to any accustomed moral crime or depravity of habit. He was followed in the Toba by all his chiefs, who found themselves obliged to keep pace with the march of mind—to prepare for the defensive system of policy, this assumption of purity, on the part of the Prince, suggested. The Toba was a sort of declaration of principles; and the chiefs, viewing it in that light, beheld their hopes of supremacy in imminent hazard.... In later life the Ameer became sensible of the advantages arising from learning. Although knowledge of literature among Mahomedan nations is confined to a contracted sphere, at least the reputation of theological science was essential to the chief, on whom had been conferred the title of Ameer-ul-Mominin, or Commander of the Faithful. To escape the humility of dependence upon subordinate agents, more especially the secretaries necessarily employed in all revenue and judicial transactions, he tasked his mind with the acquisition of letters, and became worthy, by his industry and success in the pursuit, of the greatest respect of the great, as he commanded the admiration of the vulgar, who are ever accustomed to venerate the divinity of wisdom.”

[78] Among other stipulations was one, that “the heir-apparent of the Shah shall always attend his highness with a force, having also his family along with him; that he shall be treated with distinction, and expected to accompany the Maharajah in all his journeys.” Another demand put forth by Runjeet was for the delivery to him of the sandalwood gates of Somnauth (or Juggernauth, as the Maharajah called them), destined afterwards to confer such celebrity upon the Indian administration of Lord Ellenborough. Shah Soojah’s answer to the demand is worth quoting:-“Regarding the demand of the portals of sandal at Ghiznee, a compliance with it is inadmissible in two ways: firstly, a real friend is he who is interested in the good name of his friend. The Maharajah being my friend, how can he find satisfaction in my eternal disgrace? To desire the disgrace of one’s friend is not consistent with the dictates of wisdom. Secondly, there is a tradition among all classes of people that the forefathers of the Sikhs have said that their nation shall, in the attempt to bring away the portals of sandal, advance to Ghiznee; but having arrived there, the foundation of their empire shall be overthrown. I am not desirous of that event. I wish for the permanence of his highness’s dominion.”

[79] “The Sindhians have agreed to pay a contribution of either five or seven lakhs of rupees to farm the Shikarpoor territory for a settled annual sum from Shah Soojah, and to provide him with an auxiliary force, the Shah taking hostages from them for the entire execution of these articles.”—[_Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, March 5, 1834._]

[80] Not the minister—but a Persian adventurer of the same name, who afterwards obtained service in Bokhara.

[81] Mr. Vigne says that he had this from Campbell himself. The word indicates more properly a plundering attack; but is employed here to signify an irregular descent, or rush, upon the enemy.

[82] Shah Soojah, when on his way to Shikarpoor, in 1833, had entered into a treaty with Runjeet Singh, by one of the articles of which he ceded Peshawur to the Sikhs. But Runjeet Singh was by no means inclined to wait until the Shah had established his title to give away any portion of the Afghan dominions; so he sent his grandson, Nao Nehal Singh, a boy, who then “took the spear into his hand” for the first time, to take possession of the place.

[83] He had been recommended by some to assume the titles of royalty, but he replied, that as he was too poor to support his dignity as a Sirdar, it would be preposterous to think of converting himself into a King.

[84] General Harlan.

[85] Harlan originally went out to China and India as supercargo of a merchant vessel. He left his ship at Calcutta, and obtained service, as a supernumerary, on the medical establishment of the Company. He was posted to the artillery at Dum-Dum, and afterwards accompanied Major (now Sir George) Pollock to Rangoon. He does not appear to have earned a very good name during his connexion with the Company’s army, which he soon quitted, and obtained service with Runjeet Singh—afterwards to seek the patronage of Dost Mahomed, whom he had so foully betrayed.

[86] It would appear that Dost Mahomed, instigated by Meerza Samad Khan, seized Mr. Harlan, as well as the Fakir Aziz-ood-een, who was also sent as an ambassador into the Ameer’s camp. The Ameer endeavoured to throw the odium of the act upon Sultan Mahomed, hoping thereby to ruin him utterly in the opinion of the Sikhs; but Sultan Mahomed, after having taken a number of oaths on the Koran, pledging himself to compliance with the Ameer’s wishes, sent back the prisoners (or _hostages_, as Dost Mahomed called them) to the Maharajah’s camp. Mr. Harlan himself, however, says nothing about this. Mohun Lal says that “the appalling news (of the treachery of Sultan Mahomed) wounded the feelings of the Ameer most bitterly. There were no bounds to the sweat of shame and folly which flowed over his face, and there was no limit to the laughter of the people at his being deceived and ridiculed. His minister, Meerza Samad Khan, was so much distressed by this sad exposure of his own trick, and still more by the failure of his plan in losing the Fakir, that he hung down his head with great remorse and shame, and then, throwing away his state papers, he exclaimed, that he would avoid all interference in the government affairs hereafter.”

[87] The authorities consulted in the preparation of this chapter are the published works of Burnes, Conolly, Vigne, Masson, Mohun Lal, Harlan, &c.; the autobiography of Shah Soojah; and the manuscript reports of Colonel Rawlinson. To the latter I am indebted for much valuable information relative to the Douranee tribes.

[88] Russia refused to accept the formal mediation of Great Britain; but the good offices of the ambassador were employed with success.

[89] “Poor Captain Christie and Lieutenant Lindsay,” says Sir Harford Jones, “by their indefatigable perseverance had brought, when I left Persia, the one, several of the regiments of the Prince’s infantry, and the other, the corps of horse artillery, considering the shortness of the time they had been employed, to a state of perfection that was quite astonishing. And what is equally to the credit of these gallant officers, they were both adored by the officers and men under their tuition; though in the beginning they had often been obliged to treat the latter with a degree of severity that could not then have been practised with safety at Constantinople. The Prince Royal, however, had much merit in this respect, for whenever a punishment was inflicted and complained of to him, he invariably gave the offender a double portion of it, and by this means soon put an end to complaint.”—[_Sir Harford Jones’s Account of the Transactions of His Majesty’s Mission to the Court of Persia, 1807-1811._] Malcolm took with him to Persia, as a present from the Indian Government to the Shah, twelve field-pieces, with harness and all necessary equipments for horse artillery.

[90] Captain Christie was an officer of the Bombay army, selected for employment in Persia, by General Malcolm, on account of his high reputation for gallantry and personal activity, and his thorough acquaintance with the native character. Associated with Pottinger, on their first entry into Beloochistan, he afterwards diverged to the northward, and, in the guise of a horse-dealer, penetrated through Seistan to Herat, and thence, by the way of Yezd and Ispahan, reached the northern regions of Persia. A great part of the line which he thus traversed had never before, and has never, I believe, since been explored by an European traveller. Stories of Christie’s extraordinary personal strength and prowess, are current to the present day in the north of India and in Persia. In the latter country, indeed, he was adored by the soldiery, and his name is still a household word among the old officers of the Azerbijan army. He was killed at the head of his famous Shegaughee brigade, in the night attack which was made by the Russians on the Persian camp at Aslandooz, in November, 1812.

Lieutenant Lindsay was an officer of the Madras Horse Artillery, and, to scientific attainments of no ordinary extent, added the most imposing personal appearance. He was six feet eight inches in height (without his shoes), and thus realised, in the minds of the Persians, their ideas of the old heroes of romance. After many years’ service in Persia, he resigned his appointment in the Indian service, and, succeeding to the estate of Kincolquhair, settled in Scotland as Lindsay Bethune. In 1834 he was again sent to Persia by the British Government, with a view to his employment in the expected war of the succession, and was thus enabled, in the following year, to add to his former laurels, by leading (on the death of Futteh Ali Shah) the advanced division of the Persian army from Tabreez to Teheran, and subsequently quelling a very serious rebellion against the authority of Mahomed Shah, that was set afoot in the south of Persia by the Prince of Shiraz and his sons. For this service, on his return to England, he was rewarded with a baronetcy, and in 1836 he was a third time sent out with a Major-General’s commission, to take command of the Persian army. Owing, however, to the misunderstanding which arose out of the advance upon Herat, the Persian Government on this occasion declined to employ him, and he finally retired from military life in 1839. He lived more than ten years after this; and at the close of his life, again travelled in Persia, revisiting the scenes of his former exploits. But death overtook him before he could return.

[91] _Sir Gore Ouseley to the Court of Directors_: _March 21, 1812._—[_MS. Records._]

[92] _MS. Records._ Sir Gore Ouseley’s treaty is not given in the collection of treaties in the published “Papers relating to Persia and Afghanistan.” In another article of this, which does not appear in the subsequent treaty, the amount of the allowances to be granted by the Shah to the British officers serving in Persia is laid down.

[93] Of this article it has been said by an experienced writer: “The obligation which we contracted in the 9th article, to abstain from interference in the event of a possible contest between the Afghans and Persians, is hardly intelligible. Such a proposal could not have proceeded from Great Britain; and if proceeding from Persia, it indicated that desire of territorial extension which was more fully developed in the sequel, and which, when developed, compelled us on general grounds to repudiate the treaty altogether.”—[_Calcutta Review_, vol. xii.]

[94] The explanation of this failure, given by the same experienced writer, is worth quoting:-“If it be remembered that when the system is affected with chronic paralysis, the attempt is vain to restore any particular member to a healthy action, it will be understood that, to a nation devoid of organisation in every other department of government, a regular army was impossible. It thus happened that, notwithstanding the admirable material for soldiery which were offered by the hardy peasantry of Azerbijan, and the still hardier mountaineers of Kermanshah—notwithstanding the aptitude of the officers to receive instruction—notwithstanding that a due portion of physical courage appertained generally to the men—the disciplined forces of Persia, considered as an army, and for the purpose of national defence, were, from the epoch of their first creation, contemptible. Beyond drill and exercise, they never had anything in common with the regular armies of Europe and India. System was entirely wanting, whether in regard to pay, clothing, food, carriage, equipage, commissariat, promotion, or command; and under a lath-and-plaster government like that of Persia, such must have been inevitably the case. At the same time, however, a false confidence arose of a most exaggerated and dangerous character; the resources of the country were lavished on the army to an extent which grievously impoverished it at the time, and which has brought about at the present day a state of affairs that, in any other quarter of the world, would be termed a national bankruptcy; above all, the tribes—the chivalry of the empire, the forces with which Nadir overran the East from Bagdad to Delhi, and which, ever yielding but ever present, surrounded, under Aga Mahomed Khan, the Russian armies with a desert—were destroyed. Truly then it may be said that in presenting Persia with the boon of a so-called regular army, in order to reclaim her from her unlawful loves with France, we clothed her in the robe of Nessus.”—[_Calcutta Review_, vol. xii.] See also _Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm_.

[95] The characteristic words of the Russian manifesto, announcing these events, are worth quoting:-“Obliged to pursue the enemy through a country without roads, laid waste by the troops which were to have defended it; often opposed by nature itself; exposed to the burning sun of summer, and the rigour of winter; our brave army, after unparalleled efforts, succeeded in conquering Erivan, which was reputed impregnable. It passed the Araxes, planted its standards on the top of Ararat, and penetrating further and further into the interior of Persia, it occupied Tabreez itself, with the country depending on it. The Khanate of Erivan, on both sides of the Araxes, and the Khanate of Nakhichevan, a part of the ancient Armenia, fell into the hands of the conquerors.”

[96] This fortress, together with the surrounding country, to the extent of three wersts and a half, was ceded to Russia.

[97] Sir Harford Jones.

[98] The Duke of Wellington wrote to Mr. Canning, in Nov., 1826, “It will not answer to allow the Persian monarchy to be destroyed, particularly upon a case of which the injustice and aggression are undoubtedly on the side of the Russians.” Sir John Malcolm, to whom the Duke sent a copy of this letter, wrote, “You certainly are right. There is a positive claim in faith for mediation.” Mr. Canning, however, affected to doubt whether there had been any aggression against Persia. “Does not the article,” he asked, “which defines the _casus fœderis_ to be aggression against Persia, limit the effect of the whole treaty, and the aim of the sixth article, which promises our mediation? Are we bound even to mediate in a case in which Persia was the aggressor.”—[_Life and Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm_, vol. ii. pp. 452-455.]

[99] A writer in the _Foreign Quarterly Review_, who, if not Sir John M’Neill himself, has unblushingly appropriated, without acknowledgment, a large portion of the pamphlet on the “Progress and present position of Russia in the East,” published some three or four years before, says: “Assuredly Prince Abbas Meerza relied strongly upon this (the 4th article of the treaty), and without it would never have engaged in the contest he provoked; we are bound in justice to say, and we say it on good authority, wantonly and in defiance of the feelings of the Persian Government and King. But though Persia had fairly executed all her share of the treaty in question, the English minister, when called upon to fulfil this condition, hesitated, hung back, negotiated, and delayed under every possible pretext, while he could not deny the faith or the claim of Persia. It was clear, however, to all the parties that Mr. Canning only sought a means of escaping the fulfilment of the stipulations. He was hard pressed by the reluctance to engaging in a war with Russia, represented as too probable by the minister of that power at the British Court, and by the dexterity of a first-rate female diplomatist, to whom, indeed, the management of the matter was fairly confided by the Russian Court, and whose influence was fatally effective in this and the Turkish questions. In affecting to adhere simply to the policy of his predecessors, Mr. Canning forgot the immense difference and disgrace of refusing the fulfilment only at the time when, and because, the need was urgent. He could not foresee that Persia must become, if further humbled, the tool of Russia against the East; if he had, no earthly power would have balanced against his duty. He did not even perceive that the crisis to Persia had arrived; and contented himself with a double sacrifice to vanity, in assuming to arbitrate against a sovereign prince, and hearing his praises resounded by the lips of successful beauty.”

[100] “A letter has been received in town from Persia, which has excited a good deal of talk in the bazaar, and the substance of which we give merely as a rumour of the day. It states that Prince Abbas Meerza has ordered 30,000 men to march upon Herat, and that this movement is only preparatory to an advance upon India in conjunction with Russia. This is probably a mere rumour or the echo of a lie—but ‘coming events cast their shadows before,’ and many of these rumours, combined with the tone which now and then breaks out in the Russian journals, show but too well the turn of men’s thoughts and wishes, and should warn us to be prepared.”—[_Bombay Gazette, August 25, 1832._] About the same time, Dr. Wolff, who was then travelling in Central Asia, wrote: “It is remarkable that there is a current belief, not only throughout Khorassan, but, as I found it afterwards, throughout Toorkistan even to Caubul, that Abbas Meerza had married a Russian Princess, and adopted the Russian religion; and that 50,000 Russians would come to Khorassan by way of Khiva, and assist Abbas Meerza in conquering Khorassan. So much is true that Russia has written to Futteh Ali Shah, offering him 5000 men for taking Khorassan, and putting down the chupow—_i.e._, plundering system of the Toorkomans; and I hope to prove it to a certainty that Russia will be very soon the mistress of Khiva, under the pretext that the King of Khiva has 8000 Russian slaves, whilst I know by the most authentic reports that there are not above 200 Russian slaves and 60 Russian deserters at Khiva.”—[_Calcutta Christian Observer, September, 1832._] It was stated at one time that Russia had consented to yield her claim to the balance of the indemnity money remaining then due by Persia, on condition of the latter joining in an expedition against Khiva.

[101] Abbas Meerza gratefully acknowledged the assistance he received from Captain Shee, Mr. Beek, and M. Berowski, the Pole, of whom subsequent mention will be made. At the siege of Koochan a sergeant of the Bombay Horse Artillery, named Washbrook, directed the mortar batteries, which mainly conduced to the reduction of the place.

[102] Nor did he scruple outwardly to evince the relative degrees of respect which he entertained for the two nations in the persons of their representatives. On one occasion, for example, when the Russian envoy, Count Simonich, was returning from an excursion, the foreign minister went out to meet him, but demurred to paying the same compliment to the British ambassador.—[_MS. Records._] This incident, however, which created some sensation in the Calcutta Council-Chamber, may have had its source in the private feelings of Meerza Massoud, the foreign minister, who, having long resided at St. Petersburgh, was a mere creature of the Russian State.

[103] _Mr. Ellis to Lord Palmerston: Teheran, November 13, 1835._—[_Published Papers relating to Persia and Afghanistan._]

[104] The officer whom he proposed to send was Lieutenant Todd, of the Bengal Artillery, who held the local rank of Major in Persia, and who had long been employed in instructing the artillery of the Persian army.

[105] The Russian minister had urged the King to undertake a winter campaign against Herat. But Count Nesselrode always resolutely maintained that Simonich had endeavoured to persuade the Shah not to proceed against Herat at all; and Simonich told the same story in his letters to his own government.

[106] Though we need not seek the causes of this expedition in anything either nearer or more remote than the ambition of the young Shah and the intrigues of the Russian Government, a pretext was put forth by, or for Persia, of a more plausible kind. It was urged that the Heratees had carried off and sold into slavery the subjects of the Persian Shah. There is no doubt of the fact. But it was never put prominently forward by the Shah, who always urged that Herat had no right to be independent. Another pretext, but a weak one, for undertaking the war was also alleged. Hulakoo, son of the Prince of Kerman, after his father was taken and blinded, and Kerman occupied by the Shah’s troops, fled to Herat, and from thence endeavoured to excite disturbances in Kain, Khaf, and Eastern Kerman.

[107] Kamran had threatened Candahar on more than one occasion; and at the end of 1835, Mr. Masson reported to the Supreme Government that the Sirdars of that place, despairing of obtaining any assistance from Dost Mahomed, had sent an emissary to the Bombay Government, offering to cede their country to the British!—[_MS. Records._] I merely give this as a report sent down by the English news-writer.

[108] “I share with you,” he wrote to Sir Charles Metcalfe, in September, 1836, “the apprehension of our being at no distant date involved in political, and possibly military operations upon our western frontier; and even since I have been here, more than one event has occurred, which has led me to think that the period of disturbance is nearer than I had either wished or expected. The constitutional restlessness of the old man of Lahore seems to increase with his age. His growing appetite for the treasures and jungles of Sindh—the obvious impolicy of allowing him to extend his dominions in that direction—the importance which is attached to the free navigation of the Indus, most justly I think, and yet perhaps with some exaggeration from its value not having been tried—the advance of the Persians towards Herat, and the link which may in consequence be formed between Indian and European politics,—all lead me to fear that the wish which I have had to confine my administration to objects of commerce, and finance, and improved institutions, and domestic policy, will be far indeed from being accomplished. But as you say, we must fulfil our destiny; and in the mean while I have entreated Runjeet Singh to be quiet, and in regard to his two last requests have refused to give him 50,000 musquets, and am ready to send him a doctor and a dentist.”—[_MS. Correspondence._]

[109] Moorcroft seems to have been upheld only by the kindly encouragement of Sir Charles (then Mr.) Metcalfe, who, as Resident at Delhi, took the greatest interest in his enterprise, and afforded him all possible assistance. He attributed the unwillingness of our Government to explore the countries beyond our frontier, to some vague apprehension of alarming the Sikhs. “It is somewhat humiliating,” he wrote to Metcalfe, “that we should know so little of countries which touch upon our frontier; and this in a great measure out of respect for a nation that is as despicable as insolent, whose origin was founded upon rapine, and which exists by acquiring conquests it only retains by depopulating the territory.”—[_MS. Correspondence_.]

[110] “The greatest apathy,” says Mr. Sterling, “prevailed, and the members of the government could not be roused to take an interest in the subject. The knowledge that I had been in these interesting countries produced no desire for intelligence regarding them, and my reception gave no encouragement for the production of it. Neglect had been preceded by the deprivation of my appointment. I was no longer collector of Agra; that situation had been disposed of nearly two months prior to my reaching the Presidency: my return was deemed hopeless, and my death anticipated.”

[111] Sir William Napier says, that “an enlightened desire to ascertain the commercial capabilities of the Indus induced Lord Ellenborough, then President of the India Board of Control, to employ the late Sir Alexander Burnes to explore the river in 1831, under pretence of conveying presents to Runjeet Singh.” But the enlightenment of this measure was questioned at the time by some of the ablest and most experienced of our Indian administrators. At the head of these Sir Charles Metcalfe emphatically protested against it. In October, 1810, he recorded a minute in Council, declaring “the scheme of surveying the Indus, under the pretence of conveying a present to Runjeet Singh,” to be “a trick unworthy of our government, which cannot fail when detected, as most probably it will be, to excite the jealousy and indignation of the powers on whom we play it.” “It is not impossible,” he added, “that it may lead to war.”—[_MS. Records._] These opinions were repeated privately in letters to Lord William Bentinck, and, at a later date, to Lord Auckland. Metcalfe, indeed, as long as he remained in India, never ceased to point out the inexpediency of interfering with the states beyond the Indus.

[112] And doubtless, very absurd and uncalled for the jealousy was considered in those days. As Burnes ascended the Indus, a Syud on the water’s edge lifted up his hands, and exclaimed, “Sindh is now gone, since the English have seen the river, which is the road to its conquest.” Nearly twenty years before, Sir James Mackintosh had written in his journal: “A Hindoo merchant, named Derryana, under the mask of friendship, had been continually alarming the Sindh Government against the English mission. On being reproved, he said that although some of his reports respecting their immediate designs might not be quite correct, yet this tribe never began as friends without ending as enemies, by seizing the country which they entered with the most amicable professions.” “A shrewd dog,” said Mackintosh; but he did not live to see the depths of the man’s shrewdness.

[113] He was promised, too, the reversion of the office of minister.

[114] Burnes, when in England, had endeavoured to impress the Court of Directors with an idea of the expediency of sending him out as commercial agent to Caubul; but Mr. Tucker, who was then in the chair, could see only the evils of such a measure. “The late Sir Alexander Burnes,” he wrote some years afterwards, “was introduced to me in 1834 as a talented and enterprising young officer, and it was suggested that he might be usefully employed as a commercial agent at Caubul, to encourage our commerce with that country and to aid in opening the river Indus to British industry and enterprise.... I declined then to propose or to concur in the appointment of Lieutenant Burnes to a commercial agency in Caubul, feeling perfectly assured that it must soon degenerate into a political agency, and that we should as a necessary consequence be involved in all the entanglement of Afghan politics.”—[_Memoirs of H. St. George Tucker._] Mr. Grant, who was then at the Board of Control, concurred in opinion with Mr. Tucker; Sir Charles Metcalfe also wrote a minute in council, emphatically pointing out the evils of this commercial agency.

[115] Mr. Percival Lord of the Bombay Medical Establishment, joined the Mission _in transitu_. Mohun Lal also accompanied it.

[116] Avitabile, an Italian by birth, was a General in the service of Runjeet Singh, and at that time Governor of Peshawur.

[117] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir Alexander Burnes._

[118] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._

[119] And, on the 30th December, Burnes, with reference to this promised sympathy, wrote, in the following words, to Mr. Macnaghten. The passage was not published in the official correspondence. It was thought better to suppress it:-“The present position of the British Government at this capital appears to me a most gratifying proof of the estimation in which it is held by the Afghan nation. Russia has come forward with offers which are certainly substantial. Persia has been lavish in her promises, and Bokhara and other States have not been backward. Yet, in all that has passed or is daily transpiring, _the chief of Caubul declares that he prefers the sympathy and friendly offices of the British to all these offers, however alluring they may seem, from Persia or from the Emperor_—which certainly places his good sense in a light more than prominent, and, in my humble judgment, proves that, by an earlier attention to these countries, we might have escaped the whole of these intrigues, and held long since a stable influence in Caubul.”—[_Ungarbled Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[120] “As I approached Caubul,” he wrote to a private friend, on the 5th of July, “war broke out with the Afghans and Sikhs, and my position became embarrassing. I was even ordered by express to pause, and while hanging on my oars another express still cries _pause_, but places a vast latitude in my hands, and ‘forward’ is my motto—forward to the scene of carnage, where, instead of embarrassing my government, I feel myself in a situation to do good. It is this latitude throughout life that has made me what I am, if I am anything, and I can hardly say how grateful I feel to Lord Auckland.... I have not as yet got the replies to my recommendation on our line of policy in Caubul, consequent on a discovered intrigue of Russia, and on the Caubul chief throwing himself in despair on Perso-Russian arms. I have at last something to do, and I hope to do it well.”—[_Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[121] _Ante, page 186._ In a letter to another correspondent, written about the same time, Burnes says: “With war came intrigues, and I have had the good fortune to find out all the doings of the Czar and his emissaries here, where they have sent letters and presents. After proving this, I plainly asked the Governor-General if such things were to be allowed, and I got a reply a week ago, altering all my instructions, giving me power to go on to Herat, and anywhere, indeed, I could do good. The first exercise of the authority has been to despatch a messenger to Candahar, to tell them to discontinue their intercourse with Persia and Russia, on pain of displeasure—and not before it was time, for a son of the chief of that city, with presents for the Russian ambassador, is ready to set out for Teheran.”—[_Sir A. Burnes to Captain Jacob_—_Caubul, 29th of October, 1837_: _MS. Correspondence._]

[122] “The chiefs of Candahar,” he wrote a few days afterwards, to a private friend, “had gone over to Persia. I have detached them and offered them British protection and _cash_ if they would recede, and if Persia attacked them. I have no authority to do so; but am I to stand by and see us ruined at Candahar, when the Government tell me an attack on Herat would be most unpalatable. Herat has been besieged fifty days, and if the Persians move on Candahar, I am off there with the Ameer and his forces, and mean to pay the piper myself. We have good stuff—forty-six guns and stout Afghans, as brave as regular troops need be. I am on stirring ground, and I am glad to say I am up to it in health and all that, and was never more braced in my life.”—[_Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes_—_privately printed._]

[123] _Mr. W. H. Macnaghten to Captain A. Burnes_—_Camp Bareilly, 20th January, 1838._ The letter from which this passage is taken consists of twenty-four paragraphs, of which three only appear in the published correspondence. There seems, indeed, to have been a studious suppression of the entire history of the offers made to the Candahar chiefs, and of the censure which they called down upon Captain Burnes. Lord Auckland subsequently, with praiseworthy candour, admitted that the best authorities at home were of opinion that the measure which had evoked these expressions of the severe displeasure of his Lordship, was the very best that could have been adopted.

[124] I have given the vulgar orthography of the name. His real name was Viktevitck, or Wiktewitch.

[125] The first information relative to the fact of Vickovich’s mission to Caubul was accidentally obtained by Major Rawlinson, when on his way to the camp of Mahomed Shah, who was then marching upon Herat. The circumstances, as set forth in a private letter, from that officer himself, are not unworthy of narration:-“_Teheran, November 1, 1837._ I have just returned from a journey of much interest. M’Neill had some business in the Persian camp which he thought I might help to arrange, and I was bid accordingly to make my way to the ‘Royal Stirrup,’ with all convenient despatch. I was obliged to ride day and night, as the post-horses on the road, owing to the constant passage of couriers, were almost unserviceable, and yet I was only able, after all, to accomplish the distance of something more than 700 miles in a week. The last morning of my ride I had an adventure. Our whole party were pretty well knocked up, and in the dark, between sleeping and waking, we had managed to lose the road. As morning dawned, we found ourselves wandering about on the broken plain which stretches up from Subzewar to the range containing the Turquoise mines, and shortly afterwards we perceived that we were close to another party of horsemen, who were also, apparently, trying to regain the high road. I was not anxious to accost these strangers, but on cantering past them, I saw, to my astonishment, men in Cossack dresses, and one of my attendants recognised among the party a servant of the Russian Mission. My curiosity was, of course, excited, and on reaching the stage I told one of my men to watch for the arrival of the travellers, and find out who they were. Shortly afterwards the Russian party rode up, inquired who I was, and finding I was a British officer, declined to enter the Khan, but held on their road. In such a state of affairs as preceded the siege of Herat, the mere fact of a Russian gentleman travelling in Khorassan was suspicious. In the present case, however, there was evidently a desire for concealment. Nothing had been heard of this traveller by our Mission at Teheran. I had been told, indeed, absurd stories on the road, of a Muscovite Prince having been sent from Petersburgh to announce that 10,000 Russians would be landed at Asterabad, to co-operate with the Shah in reducing Herat; and this was evidently the man alluded to, but I knew not what to believe, and I thought it my duty, therefore, to try and unravel the mystery. Following the party, I tracked them for some distance along the high road, and then found that they had turned off to a gorge in the hills. There at length I came upon the group seated at breakfast by the side of a clear sparkling rivulet. The officer, for such he evidently was, was a young man of light make, very fair complexion, with bright eyes and a look of great animation. He rose and bowed to me as I rode up, but said nothing. I addressed him in French—the general language of communication between Europeans in the East, but he shook his head. I then spoke English, and he answered in Russian. When I tried Persian, he seemed not to understand a word; at last he expressed himself hesitatingly in Turcoman, or Uzbeg Turkish. I knew just sufficient of this language to carry on a simple conversation, but not enough to be inquisitive. This was evidently what my friend wanted, for when he found I was not strong enough in Jaghatai to proceed very rapidly, he rattled on with his rough Turkish as glibly as possible. All I could find out was, that he was a _bonâ fide_ Russian officer, carrying presents from the Emperor to Mahomed Shah. More he would not admit; so, after smoking another pipe with him, I remounted, and reached the Royal Camp beyond Nishapoor before dark. I had an immediate audience of the Shah, and in the course of conversation, mentioning to his Majesty my adventure of the morning, he replied, ‘Bringing presents to me! why, I have nothing to do with him; he is sent direct from the Emperor to Dost Mahomed, of Caubul, and I am merely asked to help him on his journey.’ This is the first information we have ever had of a direct communication between Petersburgh and Caubul, and it may be of great importance. The gentleman made his appearance in camp two days after my arrival, and I was then introduced to him by Mons. Goutte, as Captain Vitkavitch. He addressed me at once in good French, and in allusion to our former meeting, merely observed, with a smile, that ‘It would not do to be too familiar with strangers in the desert.’ I was so anxious to bring back to M’Neill intelligence of this Russian Mission to Caubul, that I remained but a very few days in camp; and here I am again in Teheran, after a second gallop of 750 miles, accomplished this time in about 150 consecutive hours.”—[_MS. Correspondence._]

[126] A few days afterwards, in one of those undress communications from which we often gather more significant truth than from the more formal official documents, Burnes wrote to a private friend: “We are in a mess here. Herat is besieged, and may fall; and the Emperor of Russia has sent an envoy to Caubul, to offer Dost Mahomed Khan money to fight Runjeet Singh!!!!! I could not believe my eyes or ears; but Captain Vickovich—for that is the agent’s name—arrived here with a blazing letter, three feet long, and sent immediately to pay his respects to myself. I, of course, received him, and asked him to dinner. This is not the best of it. The Ameer came over to me sharp, and offered to do as I liked, kick him out, or anything: but I stood too much in fear of Vattel to do any such thing: and since he was so friendly to us, said I, give me the letters the agent has brought; all of which he surrendered sharp; and I sent an express at once to my Lord A., with a confidential letter to the Governor-General himself, bidding him look what his predecessors had brought upon him, and telling him that after this I knew not what might happen, and it was now a neck-and-neck race between Russia and us; and if his Lordship would hear reason, he would forthwith send agents to Bokhara, Herat, Candahar, and Koondooz, not forgetting Sindh. How all this pill will go down I know not, but I know my duty too well to be silent.”—[_Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[127] Mohun Lal says that he translated the Persian copy of the letter from the Emperor, but that he lost the translation during the insurrection of 1841-42. “It plainly acknowledged,” he states, “the receipt of the Ameers letter, and assured him that all the Afghan merchants shall be well received in the empire of Russia, justice and protection shall be extended towards them, and their intercourse will cause to flourish the respective states.”—[_Life of Dost Mahomed_, vol. i. p. 300.] Masson declares that it was a forgery, seal and all, alleging in proof, that it bore no signature. To this Mohun Lal replies, that the absence of the royal signature is a proof rather of the genuine than the counterfeit character of the document. The reasons given are not very conclusive, as regards the general usage of the Czar; but, under the circumstances of the case, he would have been more inclined to omit than to attach the signature. The following is the translated letter; it was excluded from the published papers:

“A.C. In a happy moment, the messenger of your Highness, Meerza Hosan, reached my Court, with your friendly letter. I was very much delighted to receive it, and highly gratified by its perusal. The contents of the letter prove that you are my well-wisher, and have friendly opinions towards me. It flattered me very much, and I was satisfied of your friendship to my everlasting government. In consequence of this, and preserving the terms of friendship (which are now commenced between you and myself) in my heart, I will feel always happy to assist the people of Caubul who may come to trade into my kingdom. On the arrival of your messenger I have ordered him to make preparations for his long journey back to you, and also appointed a man of dignity to accompany him on the part of my government. If it pleases God, and he reaches safe, he will present to you the rarities of my country, which I have sent through him. By the grace of God, may your days be prolonged.—_Sent from St. Petersburgh, the capital of Russia, on the 27th of April, 1837 A.D., and in the 12th year of my reign._”

[128] An attempt, in the published Blue Book, was made to conceal the fact of the receipt of these letters, and to make it appear that Burnes acted entirely upon his own responsibility. The genuine letter commenced with the following words:-“I have now the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your (the Political Secretary’s) letters of the 25th of November and 2nd of December last, which reached me about the same time, and conveyed the views of the Right Honourable the Governor-General regarding the overtures made by Dost Mahomed, &c., &c.” In the published version the letter commences with the word “regarding.”

[129] Burnes, commenting on the Newab’s proposal, observes: “The observations coming from the Newab Jubbar Khan are the more remarkable, since he is devoted to his brother, Sultan Mahomed Khan, and would rejoice to see him restored to Peshawur. They consequently carried with me a conviction that the Ameer’s fears are not groundless, and that they will deserve all due consideration before government entered upon any measures for attaching this chief to its interests.” This passage was, of course, suppressed. Whether any attempt was made to bring about a settlement of the Peshawur question on the basis of this proposal, I have not been able to ascertain. But Captain Wade, considering it by no means unreasonable, declared his willingness, with the consent of the Supreme Government, to urge it upon the acceptance of Runjeet. It is doubtful, however, whether, even if Runjeet had consented to it, Sultan Mahomed would have fallen into the arrangement, although Jubbar Khan declared his ability to reconcile the brothers.

[130] Lord Auckland’s offers to restrain Runjeet from attacking the country of the Sirdars were laughed at by them. Jubbar Khan said that they indicated very little knowledge of the state of Afghanistan; for that, “so far from the proffered protection from Runjeet being of the value stated, the Maharajah never sought to attack Caubul, and that hitherto all the aggression had been on the part of the Ameer, and not the ruler of Lahore.” He added with undeniable truth, that “it appeared we valued our offers at a very high rate, since we expected, in return, that the Afghans would desist from all intercourse with Persia, Russia, Toorkistan,” &c. “Were the Afghans,” he asked, “to make all these powers hostile, and receive no protection against the enmity raised for their adhering to the British?” “As for Peshawur,” he added, “being withheld from the Ameer, it might be got over; and he believed he did not overrate his influence with Sultan Mahomed Khan, when he stated that he might bring about a reconciliation between him and the Ameer; but he must say that the value of the Afghans had indeed been depressed, and he did not wonder at the Ameer’s disappointment.”—[_Ungarbled Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[131] “The Meerza made nearly the same observation as the Newab about the expectations which the Ameer had cherished of doing service for the British, and devoting himself to it; that it was not the adjustment of Peshawur affairs that dissipated his hopes, but the indifference to his sufferings and station, which it was now clear we felt.” The Meerza truly said that Dost Mahomed had often written to the British Government about his affairs, and that in reply they answered him about their own.—[_Ungarbled Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[132] It is probably of this meeting, or one shortly preceding it, of which General Harlan, who has not much regard for dates, speaks in the following passage. Harlan had by this time quitted Runjeet Singh’s camp, and taken service with Dost Mahomed:-“The document (Lord Auckland’s ultimatum) was handed to me amongst others. I satisfied myself, by the Governor-General’s signature, of its authenticity, surveying the contents with extreme surprise and disappointment. Dost Mahomed was mortified, but not terrified.... The Governor-General’s ultimatum was handed round, and an embarrassing silence ensued. A few minutes elapsed, when Abdul Sami Khan recalled the party from abstraction.... _He_ proclaimed that the Governor-General’s ultimatum left no other alternative than the dismission of the English agent, for the spirit of the Kuzzilbash party was supercilious and unyielding, though full of duplicity.... Nieb Mahomed Ameer Khan, Akhondzadeh, openly opposed the Kuzzilbash party, and urged many weighty arguments in favour of a pacific settlement of the Ameer’s relations with the British Government, which had now assumed a position so inauspicious. He concluded his oration with these words, addressing the Ameer: ‘There is no other recourse for you but to introduce Mr. Harlan in the negotiations with Mr. Burnes, and he, through his own facilities and wisdom, will arrange a treaty according to their European usage, for the pacific and advantageous settlement of your affairs;’ and to this proposition the council _unanimously_ assented.” The proposition, it appears, was made to Burnes; but Burnes declined the honour of negotiating with the doctor-general. Harland says that he then wrote to the British envoy, offering to “negotiate upon his own terms;” but Burnes sent “a reply personally friendly,” but “evincing a deficiency of knowledge of first principles concerning the rights of independent powers in political negotiations.” Burnes says nothing about this in his official or private letters.

[133] Mr. Masson says, that before its departure the Mission had fallen into contempt, and that the assassination of Burnes was talked of in Caubul. He explains too, what, according to his account, were the real causes of Burnes’s departure without his companions; but it does not come within our province to investigate Masson’s charges against the envoy.

[134] Overtures had been made to Runjeet by Vickovich, who offered to visit the Maharajah’s Court. But British influence at this time was too strong at Lahore for the Russian to make way against it. Runjeet, however, who was not ignorant of the Russo-phobia then rampant amongst us, turned the Cossack’s overtures to some account, and probably pretended more uncertainty on the score of the answer to be returned to him than he in reality felt. Mackeson, to whom the business of counteracting the designs of Vickovich was entrusted, managed it with great address, and won from the Maharajah a promise to have nothing to do with the Muscovite agent. But the knowledge that the Russian agent was, as it were, knocking at the gates of Lahore, made our authorities especially anxious to conciliate the Maharajah, by refraining from entering into any negotiations with Caubul which might possibly give umbrage to Runjeet.

[135] What befel the unhappy agent after this, it is painful to relate. When he returned to Persia, in 1839, after giving a full report of his mission to M. Duhamel, the new minister at Teheran, he was instructed to proceed direct to St. Petersburgh. On his arrival there, full of hope, for he had discharged the duty entrusted to him with admirable address, he reported himself, after the customary formality, to Count Nesselrode; but the minister refused to see him. Instead of a flattering welcome, the unhappy envoy was received with a crushing message, to the effect that Count Nesselrode “knew no Captain Vickovich, except an adventurer of that name, who, it was reported, had been lately engaged in some unauthorised intrigues at Caubul and Candahar.” Vickovich understood at once the dire portent of this message. He knew the character of his government. He was aware of the recent expostulations of Great Britain. And he saw clearly that he was to be sacrificed. He went back to his hotel, wrote a few bitter reproachful lines, burnt all his other papers, and blew out his brains.

[136] Arthur Conolly. The correctness of this description is confirmed by Eldred Pottinger, in his unpublished journal. I have been obliged to write it in the past tense. “The late war,” says Pottinger, “and its consequences have so changed the entire neighbourhood of the city, that, under its present appearance, it would not be recognised by its former visitants. Moreover, the city and its surrounding places have been so well described by Lieut. A. Conolly, that I need not repeat the description.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[137] Of these bazaars Pottinger writes: “The interior of the city is divided into four nearly equal divisions, by two streets which, at right angles, cross each other in the centre of the city. The principal one joins the gate of Candahar to the Pay-i-Hissar, and was formerly covered by a succession of small domes, springing from arches which cross the streets. About two-thirds of this magnificent bazaar still remain; but so choked up with rubbish, and so ruinous, that it has lost much of its attraction to the eye. This bazaar was about 1300 yards long and 6 in width. The solidity of the masonry of this work should have insured its stability; but unfortunately the arches are all defective—not one has a keystone. They are built, as all others in this country are, with a vacancy at the apex, filled merely with bits of broken bricks, ... The whole of the lower floors on each side are used as shops.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[138] Conolly says: “The town itself is, I should imagine, one of the dirtiest in the world.... No drains having been contrived to carry off the rain which falls within the walls, it collects and stagnates in ponds which are dug in different parts of the city. The residents cast out the refuse of their houses into the streets, and dead cats and dogs are commonly seen lying upon heaps of the vilest filth.”—[_Conolly’s Journey to the North of India._]

[139] _Report of Major Eldred Pottinger to the Supreme Government of India on the defences of Herat. Calcutta: July, 1840._—[_MS. Records._]

[140] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[141] Eldred Pottinger, from whose manuscript journal the materials of this chapter are mainly drawn, gives a remarkable illustration of the manner in which justice was then administered. “During this period,” he says, “a Heratee detected a noted robber in his outhouse, and with the aid of his neighbours arrested him. In the morning, when taken before the Sirdar by the cutwal, to request the order for punishment might be given as the case was proved, the robber declared, that on hearing the citizen call for aid, he had run to his help, and, being immediately laid hold of, made prisoner and accused. He also accused the cutwal of being a partner in the plan. The young Sirdar, with an acumen to be wondered at but not described, decided that his was the truth of the story—sold the accuser, and so severely fined the witnesses, that they were reduced to poverty and debt to the soldiers—the sure precursor of slavery. He then gave the thief, who was his own servant, a _khelat_ (or dress of honour) and released him. Under such a governor the misery of the people would require a more eloquent pen than mine to narrate.”

[142] It need scarcely be said that the Persians are generally of the Sheeah, and the Afghans of the Soonee sect. At Herat the rulers and the soldiery were Soonees, whilst the shopkeepers and other peaceful citizens were Sheeahs. The oppression of the Sheeahs by their Afghan masters was one of the circumstances by a reference to which Mahomed Shah sought to justify his invasion of Herat.

[143] Pottinger says that “he was much devoted to field-sports, and spent the greater part of his time in their pursuit. He was an unerring shot with a matchlock; he could divide a sheep in two by a single cut of his sabre, and with a Lahore bow send an arrow through a cow.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[144] Yar Mahomed was the nephew of Atta Mahomed, an influential Sirdar of the Alekozye tribe, who was Minister to Shah Mahmoud and Hadjee Feroz, and afterwards of Shah Kamran. This man left two sons, Deen Mahomed and Sultan Mahomed; but neither possessed the same capacious mind and energetic character which distinguished their cousin Yar Mahomed, who was always, more or less, at enmity with them, and at last drove them out of Herat, in 1841.

[145] Pottinger says, with reference to this ill-judged movement, that “the Wuzeer played away the last stake of his master by which he could have hoped to recover his former dominions or to defend his present. Indeed, after-events have shown that the body of cavalry which he thus frittered away and destroyed was strong enough to have prevented the Persian army leaving its own frontier.” There was, however, some compensation which, whether the result of the siege or not, is worth mentioning, in the fact that when Herat was attacked by the Persians, many of the old garrison of Jowayn came to the assistance of their former enemies.

[146] It is doubted by some, whose opinions are entitled to the highest respect, whether either Kamran or Yar Mahomed ever really contemplated an expedition for the recovery of Candahar and Caubul; but it is certain that they talked about it. In the letter which Kamran sent to Mahomed Shah, by Futteh Mahomed Khan, he expressed a “hope of obtaining the favour of his Majesty, so that with the aid of the well-wishers of Persia he might subdue his hereditary dominions, and overwhelm his rebellious enemies;” and in a message which Pottinger was commissioned to deliver to the Persian monarch, it was distinctly declared that Futteh Mahomed Khan had been sent to Teheran to beg for aid towards the recovery of Kamran’s paternal kingdom.

[147] Among these was M. Euler, the Shah’s European physician.

[148] “I have heard him,” writes one who knew Pottinger well, “describe how on two occasions, when challenged about not praying or turning towards Mecca, he silenced all questioning by appealing to the usage of India.”—[_Private Correspondence._]

[149] Pottinger, who is provokingly chary, in his journal, of information about himself, does not say whether he appeared at these interviews in his true character of a British officer; but I conclude that he did not, on these occasions, attempt to conceal his nationality. Nor does it seem that, in his intercourse with the higher class of Heratees, he wore any disguise; for we soon find him taking part in a conversation about Arthur Conolly, and addressed as a countryman of that fine-hearted young Englishman. I cannot transcribe, without a glow of pleasure, the following passage in Pottinger’s journal:-“I fell in with a number of Captain Conolly’s acquaintances. Every person asked after him, and appeared disappointed when I told them I did not know him. In two places I crossed Mr. Conolly’s route, and on his account received the greatest hospitality and attention—indeed, more than was pleasant, for such liberality required corresponding upon my part; and my funds were not well adapted for any extraordinary demand upon them. In Herat, Mr. Conolly’s fame was great. In a large party, where the subject of the Europeans who had visited Herat was mooted, Conolly’s name being mentioned, I was asked if I knew him, and on replying, ‘Merely by report,’ Moollah Mahomed, a Sheeah Moollah of eminence, calling to me across the room, said, ‘You have a great pleasure awaiting you. When you see him, give him my salutation, and tell him that I say he has done as much to give the English nation fame in Herat, as your ambassador, Mr. Elphinstone, did at Peshawur;’ and in this he was seconded by the great mass present.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[150] Better known by his title of Asoof-ood-dowlah. He was the head of the _Yukhaw-bash_ division of the Kajjar tribe, and, according to the heraldry of the clans, was thus of higher rank than the Shah, who was merely the chief of the _Ashagha-bash_, or younger branch. Futteh Ali Shah, to stanch an old tribe feud, had married his son and heir-apparent, Abbas Meerza, to the heiress of the rival branch, an Mahomed Shah being the issue of this marriage, the Asoof-ood-dowlah was his maternal uncle. The Asoof was Governor of Khorassan, with almost independent powers, from 1835 to 1847. He is now in exile at Baghdad.

[151] As the army approached Herat some important captures were made. Among others, the secretary of the Asoof-ood-dowlah was carried off, with all his papers.

[152] This was Yar Mahomed’s first angry view of the case; but it may be doubted whether Shere Mahomed Khan was fairly to be censured for the loss of Ghorian. Of small dimensions, and unfurnished with bomb-proofs, the place was ill calculated to sustain the heavy vertical fire of shot and shell which the Persian artillery poured into it. A magazine and storehouse took fire; and at the time of its surrender Colonel Stoddart pronounced it to be quite untenable.

[153] Shums-ood-deen Khan of Herat was a Populzye nobleman of very good family, and in great favour with Shah Kamran before the commencement of the siege of Herat. His sister was the Shah’s favourite wife, and he was entirely in his Majesty’s confidence. A position of so much power, however, made Yar Mahomed his enemy, and it was to escape the minister’s persecution that he deserted to the Persian camp on the approach of the invading army. Had he remained in the city, he would certainly have been imprisoned or assassinated, for the Shah was powerless to protect him. It was surmised, indeed, that his Majesty counselled, or at any rate connived at, his flight, as his only means of escape.

[154] Of this barbarous custom of bringing in the heads of the enemy, Pottinger speaks with becoming indignation. “I have not thought it necessary,” he writes in his journal, “to recount the number of heads that were brought in daily, nor indeed do I know. I never could speak of this barbarous, disgusting, and inhuman conduct with any temper. The number, however, in these sorties was always insignificant, and the collecting them invariably broke the vigour of the pursuit, and prevented the destruction of the trenches. There is no doubt great terror was inspired by the mutilation of the bodies amongst their comrades. But there must have been, at least, equal indignation—and that a corresponding exaltation was felt by the victors at the sight of these barbarous trophies, and the spoils brought in.”—[_MS. Journal._] As rewards were always given for these bloody trophies, the garrison were naturally very active in their endeavours to obtain them. Sometimes their avarice outstripped both their honesty and their nationality. On one occasion, after an unsuccessful sortie, an Afghan brought in a pair of ears. A cloak and some ducats were given him as a reward for his butchery. Before any questions could be put to the fellow, he suddenly vanished. About half an hour afterwards, another man, covered with mud, made his appearance with a head in his hand. The Wuzeer, thinking it looked as though it had no ears, ordered one of his retainers to examine it. On this the bearer of the ghastly trophy threw it down, and ran away with all the speed he could command. The head was picked up by one of the Wuzeer’s retainers, and found to be that of a comrade, who had fallen during a sortie of the preceding night. The fellow was pursued, and soundly beaten and kicked—but the more successful bringer-in of the ears was not to be found, though several rough unscrupulous fellows were told by the Wuzeer that they might possess themselves of both cloak and ducats if they could.

[155] _MS. Journal of Eldred Pottinger._

[156] “The enemy’s fire being directed to the parapet at all points, the rubbish began to shelter the foot of the escarp. Strong working parties commenced building up backs to the rampart at the point fired at, so that the body of the old rampart may become a parapet, and the summit of the new back a terre-pleine from which to defend the breaches when formed.”—[_MS. Journal of Eldred Pottinger._]

[157] “A great number of these shells are carved out of slate-rock, and their chamber contains little more than a bursting charge. Hence they are unable to do much execution.”—[_MS. Journal of Eldred Pottinger._]

[158] “They made,” says Pottinger, “but a beggarly appearance.”

[159] The Wuzeer was too crafty a man to do anything to exasperate the Shah of Persia whilst there was the least prospect of his success. Pottinger’s opinion on the subject is worth quoting:-“The minister throughout all the negotiations constantly addressed Mahomed Shah as his sovereign, and called both Hadjee Akasy (the Persian prime minister) and Alayar Khan (Asoof-ood-dowlah) his father. He also invariably threw the blame of the defence on some one else, and regretted being obliged to fight. He constantly talked of his being bound in honour to serve his master, Kamran, but in inclination to serve Mahomed Shah. He also invariably avoided mixing himself up individually in any act decidedly hostile to Persian feelings or prejudices; allowing some of his friends to act, and then, under (to the Persians) a show of inquiry, sharing the advantages; so that in reality very few tangible instances could be mentioned of his hostility, and none but what, as a good talker, he could easily assert were not so; and that he had taken the Persian side. He knew that the King was aware that all the chiefs of the Persian army supported themselves by the same means as he did; and in many instances without adding the lip-loyalty which he always gave vent to—that, moreover, he could say that he did not oppress the Persian people—that it was the other chiefs who did so—that without aid, he could not check it in his equals, who would otherwise join to overthrow him—that the aylayats (wandering tribes) always acted so—that he would not desert the cause of his patron and benefactor. In a despot, who only looks in his followers for personal attachment, and prefers the hardiest and most unscrupulous, less than this would have secured favour; nay, more, among chiefs who support themselves in the same way, such arguments would have secured popularity; and as parties also ran high in the Persian camp, and he had secured the favour of the two chiefs, both sides would have been anxious to secure so knowing and powerful an assistant by exertions in procuring his liberty. Yar Mahomed, with that shrewdness which characterises the Afghan nation, saw the favourable position he was in, and availed himself of it to the utmost. He had an overweening idea of the valour of his countrymen in arms, and a corresponding low one of that of the Persians. From having failed in a siege with his own people, he thought no other army could succeed against his nation; and in the event of being taken, his eyes, overlooking the danger to which the Persian wrath might expose him, were dazzled with visions of the wealth, the power, and glory he might acquire in the service of what he thought a rich and ill-managed government. I do not mean to say that any persons had recommended this plan to Yar Mahomed, or that it had been [_obscure in MS._]; but that from the multitude of his counsellors, some recommending war, some submission, this must have been the mean opinion; and, added to the knowledge that, whether he defended himself or not, his life was in the same danger, and that the promise of a Kajar was only to be trusted as a last resource. He, therefore, addressed himself to the task of defence; but, at the same time, took steps to secure his interest in case of a reverse. I do not think that he could have succeeded in the latter point but he, doubtless, had hopes of succeeding.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[160] On the 10th of January, “money being wanted, the houses of the Persian followers of Shere Mahomed were confiscated on a charge of treason, in giving up Ghorian.”—[_Pottinger’s Journal: MS._]

[161] “The digging a gallery,” writes Pottinger, “under the wall, and entering in the midst of the town, appeared a most capital plan, and suited much better their cunning than any other. Consequently, they were seriously alarmed, and for a time serious consequences resulted to the Sheeah inhabitants; and many domiciliary visits were paid in search of the gallery, whilst the ruins and empty houses were particularly patrolled for many nights.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[162] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._ “No matter,” he adds, “how the cowardice and meanness of these men might be despised, no one could help pitying the wretchedness they were suffering. Even the better class of the Afghans used to say, ‘Afsoos ast, lekin chi koonym’—‘It is a pity, but what can we do?’ In the Pay Hissar (esplanade in front of the drawbridge) were lying half a dozen Persian heads lately brought in.”

[163] _MS. Journal of Eldred Pottinger._

[164] Contending emotions of sympathy, now with their co-religionists, and now with their fellow-citizens, agitated the breasts of the Heratees. “I went,” writes Pottinger, on the 2nd of February, “to see a Sheeah: he was grieving over the fate which hung over him; one moment cursing Mahomed Shah’s pusillanimity—the next, the Afghan tyranny. But through the whole of his discontent, I observed he felt a sort of pride and satisfaction in being the countryman of those who set the Persians at defiance. But he appeared fully impressed with the idea that the city must fall, whilst the Afghans I had just left were talking of plundering Teheran with the aid of our artillery and infantry.”—[_MS. Records._]

[165] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[166] Samson was a Russian in the Persian service, commanding a corps of Russian refugees.

[167] “I then proceeded to Colonel Stoddart’s tent, whom I found in the greatest astonishment possible, as his servants, taking up the general report of my rank, had announced me as the Mooshtehid of Herat. He had been undressed; and putting on his coat to do honour to the high dignitary, gave me time to enter his tent before he could get out, so we met at the door, where he overwhelmed me with a most affectionate Persian welcome, to which I, to his great surprise, replied in English. No one who has not experienced it, can understand the pleasure which countrymen enjoy when they thus meet—particularly when of the same profession, and pursuing the same object.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[168] They fired from this piece eight-inch shells full of lead, or twelve or eighteen-pound shot, with an outer case of copper. These were of so much value, that the garrison fought for them.

[169] The same man, a major in the army, whom Pottinger had first met in the Persian camp.

[170] “The man,” says Pottinger, “was also instructed to say that warning should be taken from our conduct in India, where we had pretended friendship and trade to cover our ambition, and finally, by such deceit, had mastered all India.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[171] It would be tedious to narrate all the details of the siege, and difficult to render them intelligible, even to the scientific reader, without the aid of a series of elaborate plans.

[172] “The point,” says Mr. M’Neill, “on which the negotiation broke off was, I believe, the demand of the Shah, that Shah Kamran and Yar Mahomed should wait upon him in his camp, and there make their submission to him. I learn that the Persians did not, as on a former occasion, require that a garrison of their troops should be admitted into the town.”—[_Mr. M’Neill to Lord Auckland, April 11, 1838. Published Correspondence._]

[173] _Mr. M’Neill to Lord Auckland, April 11, 1838. Papers relating to Persia and Afghanistan._

[174] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[175] “Several men,” says Pottinger, “received bullets through the hands and arms. One fellow, more fool-hardy than the rest, kept brandishing his huge Afghan knife, after the others had complied with the repeated orders to sheath their weapons, and had the knife destroyed by a bullet, which struck it just above his hand. I had gone down to the spot to see the mine sprung, and was sitting on the banquette with the Wuzeer and a party of chiefs, who, whilst tea was preparing, were bantering the man whose knife was broken, and who came to beg a sword instead, when a bullet came in through a loophole over my head, and, smashing a brick used for stopping it, lodged in Aga Ruhem’s lungs, who was standing opposite—one of the splinters of the brick at the same time wounding him in the face. The poor fellow was an eunuch of Yar Mahomed’s, and was always to be seen wherever any danger was. He died in two or three days. I had been but the moment before looking through the top of the parapet, with my breast resting against the loophole, watching the Persians, who were trying to establish themselves in the crater of the mine, and the Afghans on the counterscarp, who were trying to grapple the gabions and overset them, so that the scene was very interesting; and I had not sat down with the chiefs until Deen Mahomed Khan actually pulled me down by my cloak to listen to the jokes passed on the man who had his knife destroyed; and I thus escaped Aga Ruhem’s bullet.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[176] “I was much annoyed,” says Pottinger, “and told him he had probably prevented the English ambassador interfering, and he excused himself by saying that he acted so to make the Persians think he was not solicitous for the English to interfere.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[177] “A horse,” says Pottinger, “was also given; but Major Todd was as anxious not to accept presents, as the Afghans were to make them—so he would not wait for the horse, notwithstanding they set about cutting away the parapet of the _fausse-braie_, and making a ramp up the counterscarp to get the nag out. The Wuzeer was obstinately bent upon sending out the horse; but as there was no use in destroying a parapet in the only entire work left, or making an easy road across the ditch, when there were four practicable breaches.

* * * As soon as the Persians were gone, my people led the horses off in another direction, and I told the workmen to stop and repair the damage done, so that the Wuzeer did not know of the ruse till late in the afternoon, when his master of the horse reported the return of the horses. He immediately sent them to me, saying he had given them to the English and would not take them. I told him I had not enough of grain to keep them: and suggested that if he did not like to keep them, they might be eaten. The people present, on the receipt of the message, highly approved of the latter part; and Yar Mahomed gave to the most clamorous the horse intended for the Persian, which was duly roasted. I believe the other one underwent the same fate a few weeks subsequently.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[178] “I was a good deal surprised on awaking at half-past six to see the Envoy already up and busy writing. At seven, according to engagement, I sent to let the Wuzeer know that his Excellency was ready to receive him. Yar Mahomed was asleep when the message arrived; but they awoke him, and he joined us in a short time with a whole posse of chiefs. On my meeting him at the door he asked me was it customary for our ministers not to sleep at night, declaring that he had scarcely closed his eyes when he was told that Mr. M’Neill was waiting for him; and further remarked, ‘I do not wonder your affairs prosper when men of such high rank as your minister plenipotentiary work harder than an Afghan private soldier would do even under the eye of the Shah.’”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[179] _Mr. M’Neill to Yar Mahomed—Published Correspondence._

[180] Pottinger explained to Kamran the manner in which Mr. M’Neill had been deceived. “On the 24th,” he says, “I had an audience of Shah Kamran to explain the manner in which the Persians had deceived the British Envoy. His Majesty said that he never expected anything else—that the Kajars have been noted for their want of faith ever since they have been heard of—that his father and himself had several times tried their promises, but always been miserably deceived.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[181] _Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[182] _Yar Mahomed to Mr. M’Neill_—_Published Correspondence._

[183] _Mr. M’Neill to Lord Palmerston_—_Published Correspondence._ Intelligence of Simonich’s movements soon reached the beleaguered garrison. “We were told,” says Pottinger, “that Count Simonich had reconnoitred the city, and had examined with a telescope from the top of the Masula, and given his opinion that all the points attacked were too strong to be taken; and that the only vulnerable side was the eastern side.”

[184] “Notwithstanding,” says Pottinger, “that I might then be considered a doubtful friend, it was never contemplated that I should be kept out of their assembly.”—[_MS. Journal._]

[185] _Published Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan._

[186] The Gholam’s own account of the treatment he received from Hadjee Khan is worth quoting:-“Hadjee Khan then turned to me, and threatened me with instant death. I demanded the reason, but he gave me no other answer than abuse, calling me a traitor and a rascal, and said that he himself would be my executioner. He then began to unbutton his coat sleeves, threatening me all the while, and every now and then half unsheathing his dagger, ‘I will be your executioner myself,’ said the Khan. ‘If there be an enemy to the English, I am the man—you are a traitor and a rascal—your eyes shall be plucked out; the Shah has ordered me to kill you; I will first cut off your hands. You must have papers from Herat, and unless you instantly deliver them up, you shall be cut to pieces.’ Hadjee Khan went on in this strain for a long time, during which I was stripped nearly to my skin, the air being so cold that water, on being exposed, instantly froze. I was silent under all these threats and demonstrations, merely observing that, having such a noble executioner as Hadjee Khan, I was content to die, and I hoped the office would remain in his family.”—_Statement of Ali Mahomed Beg._—_Published Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan._

[187] _Mr. M’Neill to Lord Palmerston: Meshed, June 25, 1838._

[188] The Jew’s synagogue had been devoted to this unholy use; but they had contrived to accomplish its redemption.

[189] An amusing illustration of the unsavoury condition of the city at this time is given in Pottinger’s Journal. He had made the acquaintance of a magician, and wished to have a specimen of his art. “People of his class,” he writes, “are very careful of exposing themselves; and are excessively suspicious and bigoted. It was therefore a long time before I could venture to request a turn of his art. However, I at last did so, but was disappointed at finding he was not a regular practitioner; and as we had got now intimate he told me that he as yet had not commenced the practice; that he wanted to pursue the science allowed by the _Hudyth_; not the accursed magic—_Sihr Malown_; that he wished but for power to summon the _gins_ and angels to his aid. Though this was not exactly what I wanted, I should have been most happy of an introduction to either of these classes; and, therefore, not to lose my labour, I used my utmost endeavours to get my friend to commence his incantations at once. He made many excuses. First, he had not got clean clothes to change, as the scarcity had obliged him to part with everything extra to buy grain whilst it was tolerably cheap. This and sundry other excuses were easily overcome; but he evidently wished to avoid the employment, or to make excuses for use when he failed. As soon as one objection was overruled another was raised; but I overcame all except that the stench of the dead bodies from the city would prevent these spirits from venturing, except under extraordinary strong incantations, within its walls; as angels and _gins_ are said to be particularly fond of sweet odours, and excessively angered by the contrary. The argument was a clencher, and no ingenuity could overturn it, for certainly the smell was abominable, and in a calm, or when the wind came from the southward, in which direction the greatest number had been buried, the human kind could scarcely withstand the horrible effluvia of putrid flesh.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[190] A few days afterwards, however, a party of some 600 or 700, mostly old men, women, and children, were put out of the gates. “The enemy,” says Pottinger, “opened a heavy fire on them until they found out who they were, when they tried to drive them back with sticks and stones; but Naib Dustoo, to whom the business was entrusted, liker a fiend than a man, opened a fire upon the wretched citizens from the works, and the Persians thus let them pass. From the besiegers’ fire no one suffered, as a rising ground was between, but from that of the garrison it is said several fell.”

[191] It was said that Mahomed Shah had come down in person to witness the assault; but the Royal amateur was only the Shah’s brother, who, attended by a party of idlers, and a small body of horse, was a spectator of the defeat of his countrymen.

[192] “The assault on the gate of Candahar was repulsed, and the Persians chased back into their trenches; but the danger at the south-east angle prevented them following up the advantage. At the south-west angle, or Pay-in-ab, the Persians can scarcely be said to have attacked, as they never advanced beyond the parapet of their own trenches. It was evidently a mere feint. At the western, or Arak gate, a column composed of the Russian regiment, and other troops under Samson, and those under Wully Khan, marched up to the counterscarp; but Wully Khan being killed, and Samson carried off the field wounded, the men broke and fled, leaving an immense number killed and wounded. The latter were nearly all shot by idlers on the ramparts, or murdered by the plunderers, who crept out to strip the slain. The other attack, on the centre of the north-west face, was repulsed in like manner, after reaching the counterscarp.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._] Wully Khan’s body was found on the following day, and his head was brought into the city. On his person were found several letters relating to the plan of assault, which satisfactorily proved that it had been designed by the Russian officers in the Persian camp. There were two letters among them from Mahomed Shah himself—one addressed to Wully Khan, ordering him to conform to the plan of the Russian ambassador, and another to Hadjee Meerza Aghassy, directing him to give similar instructions to Wully Khan.

[193] There is nothing finer in the annals of the war in Afghanistan than the heroic conduct of Eldred Pottinger on this 24th of June. But I should as little discharge my duty as an historian, as I should gratify my inclinations as a man, if I were not to say that I have extracted, with some difficulty, from Pottinger’s manuscript journal, the real history of the service that he rendered to his country on this memorable day. The young Bombay artilleryman was endowed with a rare modesty, which made him unwilling to speak or to write about himself. In the copy of the journal before me he has erased, throughout the entire record of this day, every entrance made in the first person; and only by giving rein to a curiosity, which I should not have indulged, or considered pardonable in any ordinary case, have I succeeded in extracting the real history of an incident which has already, in one or two incorrect shapes, been given to the world. Wherever Pottinger had written in the original copy of his journal “I,” he had erased the egotistical monosyllable, and substituted the words, “the people about the Wuzeer,” or had otherwise disguised the record of his own achievements. For example, the words, “I had several times to lay hold of the Vizier, and point to him the men, who turned as soon as he did,” are altered into, “the people about abused, and several times had to lay hold of the Vizier, &c. &c.” What was thought of Pottinger’s conduct beyond the walls of Herat, may be gathered from the fact, that a few days afterwards a man came in from Kurookh, bringing some important intelligence, who immediately on his arrival, went up to Pottinger, seized his hands, kissed them, said he was indeed “rejoiced that he had made so great a pilgrimage,” and spoke with enthusiastic praise of the repulse of the Persian stormers.

[194] The loss upon the Persian side was very heavy. A large number of officers, including several chiefs of note, were killed and wounded. Mr. M’Neill wrote from camp near Teheran, to Lord Palmerston: “The number of the killed and wounded of the Persian army is variously stated; but the best information I have been able to obtain leads me to believe that it cannot be less than 1700 or 1800 men. The loss in officers, and especially those of the higher ranks, has been very great in proportion to the whole number killed and wounded. Major-General Berowski and Sirteps Wully Khan and Nebbee Khan, have been killed; Sirteps Samson Khan, Hossein Pasha Khan, and Jaffier Kooli Khan, have been wounded; and almost all the field-officers of these brigades have been killed or wounded.” There is little doubt, however, that the entire number of casualties is greatly overstated in this passage.

[195] “The Wuzeer told me the whole business hung upon me; that the Persians made a point of obtaining my dismissal, without which they would not treat. They were so pressing, that he said he never before guessed my importance, and that the Afghan envoys who had gone to camp had told him they had always thought me one man, but the importance the Persians attached to my departure showed that I was equal to an army. The Afghans were very complimentary, and expressed loudly their gratitude to the British Government, to the exertions of which they attributed the change in the tone of the Persians. They, however, did not give the decided answers they should have done, but put the question off by saying I was a guest. The Persians offered to be security for my safe passage to any place I chose to go to.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[196] At one of these consultations, held on the 18th of July, “Deen Mahomed,” said Pottinger, “proposed that each chief should bring what he had to the Wuzeer. The Wuzeer proposed that each chief should retain his own men. The Topshee-Bashee said: ‘As the Shah has money, and won’t give it, we cannot force him; but if you allow me to seize whom I like, and the chiefs give me their promise that they will not interfere in favour of any one, I will undertake to provide the expense of the men for two months.’ The chiefs immediately said ‘Done!’ and had an agreement made out, and those present sealed it.... They were, or appeared well satisfied with me; and the Wuzeer quoted my anxiety and efforts as an example to those who had their women and children to defend.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[197] _Colonel Stoddart to Mr. M’Neill. Correspondence relating to Persia and Afghanistan._

[198] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[199] “Yar Mahomed is one of the most persuasive talkers I have met. It is scarcely possible to talk with him and retain anger. He is ready in a surprising degree, and is so patient under rebuke, that I never saw him fail to quiet the most violent of his countrymen, when he thought it worth his while. A person who disregards truth, and thinks nothing of denying what he has asserted a few minutes before, is a most puzzling person to argue with. Until you have thought over what has been said, you cannot understand the changeable colours which pass before you.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._]

[200] _Eldred Pottinger’s MS. Journal._

[201] “It is my firm belief that Mahomed Shah might have carried the city by assault the very first day that he reached Herat, and that even when the garrison gained confidence, and were flushed with the success of their sorties, he might have, by a proper use of the means at his disposal, taken the place in twenty-four hours. His troops were infinitely better soldiers, and quite as brave men, as the Afghans. The non-success of their efforts was the fault of their generals. We can never again calculate on such, and if the Persians again return, they will do so properly commanded and enlightened as to the causes of their former failure. Their material was on a scale sufficient to have reduced a powerful fortress. The men worked very well at the trenches, considering they were not trained sappers, and the practice of the artillery was really superb. They simply wanted engineers, and a general, to have proved a most formidable force.”—[_Eldred Pottinger’s Report on Herat_: _Calcutta, July, 1840._ _MS. Records._]

[202] It will have been perceived that I have described the operations of the siege of Herat, almost entirely as from within the walls. I have done this partly, because I believe that the interest of such descriptions is greatly enhanced when the reader is led to identify himself more particularly with one contending party; and partly because the outside movements of the Persian army have been already detailed in the published letters of Colonel Stoddart and Mr. M’Neill, whilst no account has ever yet been given to the public of the defensive operations of the Heratees. I have already stated that my information has been, for the most part, derived from the Manuscript Journals of Eldred Pottinger.

[203] _Draft of a Note to be presented by the Marquis of Clanricarde to Count Nesselrode. Published Papers._

[204] It is not very clear, however, that the Russian Government, though doubtless discredited by the failure, regarded it as “a fatal enterprise.” Russia had a double game to play. In the familiar language of the turf, she “hedged.” Whether the Persians won or lost, she was sure to gain something. The views of Russian statesmen have been thus set forth, not improbably in the very language of one of them:

“Russia,” it is stated, “has played a very successful, as well as a very safe, game in the late proceedings. When she prompted the Shah to undertake the siege of Herat, she was certain of carrying an important point, however the expedition terminated. If Herat fell, which there was every reason to expect, then Candahar and Caubul would certainly have made their submission. Russian influence would thus have been brought to the threshold of India; and England, however much she might desire peace, could not avoid being involved in a difficult and expensive war, in order to avert more serious dangers. If, on the other hand, England interfered to save Herat, she was compromised—not with the mere court of Mahomed Shah, but with Persia as a nation. Russia had contrived to bring all Persia to Herat, and to identify all Persia with the success or failure of the campaign; and she had thus gravelled the old system of partisanship, which would have linked Azerbijan with herself, and the rest of the nation with her rival.”—[_Calcutta Review._]

[205] _Count Nesselrode’s Instructions to Count Pozzo di Borgo_: _November 1, 1839._

[206] Sir John Hobhouse’s answer is worth giving. “Very probably, Baron; but however much I should regret the collision, I should have no fear of the result.” I give this on the authority of a distinguished writer on “Our Political Relations with Persia,” in the _Calcutta Review_.

[207] For a very interesting and ably written summary of the progress of Russia in the East, and an elaborate investigation of the question of the possibility of a Russian invasion of India, see Mr. Robert Bell’s excellent “History of Russia.” It was written before the British crossed the Indus—before Russia entangled herself in the steppes, and England in the defiles of Central Asia. Neither country now, remembering these disasters, thinks of the meeting of the Sepoy and the Cossack without a shudder.

[208] I may as well mention here that the chasm between Persia and Great Britain, created by the events narrated in this chapter, was not bridged over until the spring of 1841, when Ghorian was given back to the Heratees. Before the close of that year, Mahomed Shah was collecting a great army, and contemplating extensive operations, the object of which, according to Sir John M’Neill, though disguised under the name of operations against Khiva, was another assault upon Herat.—[_Sir John M’Neill to Sir Alexander Burnes: January 5, 1842. MS._] This letter was written more than two months after Burnes had fallen a victim to the policy which I am now about to elucidate. Sir John M’Neill wrote: “I have now to inform you, that since the arrival of Count Medem, the new Russian Minister, about a month ago, the Shah has given orders for collecting an army in the spring, about two months hence, which is intended to be numerous, and to be accompanied by two hundred pieces of Artillery; and he announces his intention to march in the direction of Meshed, for the purpose of attacking Khiva. The advance of the Shah with such an army to Meshed, may produce some commotion in Afghanistan, as you will no doubt hear of his proposing to go to Herat; and I conclude, therefore, that you will be prepared to put down any movements that may be caused by the rumour of his approach, and for any ulterior measures that may be necessary.” But in a postscript, dated January 6, the very day on which the British commenced their lamentable retreat from Caubul, he added: “Since writing the preceding lines, some circumstances which have come to my knowledge, lead me to think it quite possible that the Shah may not follow out his intention of going with an army into Khorassan, and it is even possible that no army may be sent in that direction; but I am still of opinion, that it is considerably more probable that a force will be sent, than that it will not; and if a large army should march to Meshed, its objects will, I think, have reference rather to Herat than to Khiva.”—[_MS. Correspondence._]

[209] _Mr. M’Neill to Captain Burnes._ _MS. Records._

[210] Id. ibid.

[211] Count Simonich’s letter was intercepted, and taken to M’Neill by one Meer Mahomed, whom M’Neill subsequently placed at the disposal of Burnes.

[212] _“Captain Wade to J. R. Colvin” Esq., June 27, 1837._ _MS. Records._

[213] _Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._

[214] See Harlan’s account of the reception of these presents. I see no reason to question its veracity.

[215] Lord William Bentinck is said to have exclaimed, “What! Lord Auckland and Macnaghten gone to war! The very last men in the world I should have suspected of such folly!”

[216] In the preceding year he had written to Sir Charles Metcalfe, “You are quite right in believing that I have not a thought of interference between the Afghans and the Sikhs. I should not be sorry to see strong, independent, and commercial powers established in Afghanistan; but short of Persian or Russian occupation, their present state is as unsatisfactory as possible, with national, family, and religious feuds so inveterate as almost to make one party ready to join any invader against another. It is out of the question that we can ever gain direct power or influence amongst them.”—[_Life of Lord Metcalfe_, vol. ii. p. 307.] It was upon the basis of this assumption that he subsequently reared the delusive project of re-establishing “the integrity of the Douranee Empire.”

[217] “Of plans, of this nature, that of granting our aid or countenance in concert with Runjeet Singh, to enable Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk to re-establish his sovereignty in the Eastern division of Afghanistan, under engagements which shall conciliate the feelings of the Sikh ruler, and bind the restored monarch to the support of our interests, appears to me to be decidedly the most deserving of attention. Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk and Maharajah Runjeet Singh would probably act readily upon such a plan, it being similar to that in which they were before engaged, but which failed principally from the want of pecuniary aid, and the absence of our active sanction and support. In such an enterprise (which both from past experience, and from the circumstance that it would be undertaken in resistance of an attempt to establish _Sheeah_ supremacy in the country, would, we believe, have many partisans in Afghanistan) Runjeet Singh would assist by the employment of a portion of his troops, and we by some contribution in money, and the presence of an accredited agent of the government, and of a sufficient number of officers for the direction of the Shah’s army.”—[_Minute of Lord Auckland’s, Simlah, May 12, 1838_—_MS. Records._] A portion of this minute is given in the published correspondence. The passage quoted, and indeed, all the latter and more practical portion of it, is omitted.

[218] _Minute of Lord Auckland—Unpublished portion_: _MS. Records._

[219] It is worth while to quote some passages from this letter of instructions; only a grandiloquent passage setting forth generally the pacific views of Lord Auckland, and the power of the British Government having been inserted in the Blue Book. “You can then, as you observe the disposition of the Maharajah, listen to all he has to say, or, in the event of his showing no disposition to commence the conference, you can state to him the views of your own government—that two courses of proceeding had occurred to his lordship—the one that the treaty formerly executed between his Highness and Shah Soojah should be recognised by the British Government—that whilst the Sikhs advanced cautiously on Caubul, accompanied by British agents, a demonstration should be made by a division of the British army occupying Shikarpoor with Shah Soojah in their company, to whom the British Government would advance money to enable him to levy troops and purchase arms, and to whom also the services of British officers should be lent, that the same opportunity should be taken of securing to the Maharajah what it had been customary for him to receive from the Scindhians, and that with regard to Shikarpoor, the supplementary article in the treaty now proposed (and which with a second supplementary article relating to Herat is annexed to this despatch) should be substituted for Article IV. in the former treaty—that in the event of his Highness agreeing to this convention, the Governor-General would be prepared to ratify it, unless circumstances should intermediately have occurred to induce his Lordship to alter his views as to its expediency, and that in the event of the convention being ratified by his Lordship, the descent on Shikarpoor, for temporary occupation, should be directed as soon as due preparations could be made, and the season will permit. If his Highness also approved of this convention, and agreed that the operations of the allies should be conducted in concert with each other, by means of British agents in the camp of each, the Governor-General would be prepared to enter into a general defensive alliance with his Highness against the attacks of all enemies from the westward.

“You will, at the same time, propound the only other course of proceedings which, in the opinion of the Governor-General, the case admits of, which is to allow the Maharajah to take his own course against Dost Mahomed Khan without any reference to us. Should his Highness show a decided preference for this course, you are authorised to tell him at once, that he is at liberty to follow it; but you should point out to him the possibility of defeat, by the combined army of the Persians and Afghans, and you will, as far as you can consistently with propriety, impress upon him the necessity of caution, and of using Afghan rather than Sikh influence or agency. Should he wish to make an instrument of Shah Soojah, you will apprise him that the Governor-General attaches too much importance to the person of the ex-King to admit of his going forth, otherwise than with the almost assured certainty of success; but that the ex-King will be permitted to proceed to Caubul with a view of being re-instated in his sovereignty, should the Sikhs succeed in taking Caubul, and that arrangement be desired by his Highness.

“Of the relative advantages which may be derived from these two plans, you will be better able to judge after you shall have fully opened them, with the consideration which each has to recommend it to the Maharajah. His Highness may possibly be unwilling to commit his troops in the passes of the Khybur, and he may strongly feel the difficulty which religious and natural animosity will oppose to any measure mainly resting on Sikh power and Sikh influence. He may not, therefore, reject the plan that stands first in this paper; and there can be little doubt that, for ultimate efficiency, and for bringing greater weight and greater strength to bear in concert upon the objects in view, that this plan should have the preference; but it is cumbrous, and a considerable time may elapse before it can be set in motion; and if it might conciliate Afghan opinion on one hand, on the other it might impair with the Sikhs that cordiality which would be so essential to the success of co-operation. His Lordship, on the whole, is disposed to think that the plan which is second in order is that which will be found most expedient.”—[_MS. Records._]

[220] Captain Osborne, Lord Auckland’s nephew and military secretary Captain George Macgregor, of the artillery, one of his aides-de-camp, whose name has since become associated with some of the most honourable incidents of the Afghan war; and Dr. Drummond, accompanied Macnaghten.

[221] _MS. Records._

[222] Lieutenant (since Colonel) Mackeson was one of the assistants to the Governor-General’s agent on the north-west frontier. Whilst Burnes was at Caubul he was directed to remain at Peshawur; a place with which his name has since become historically, and now most painfully, associated. Some two months before the arrival of Macnaghten’s Mission, he joined Runjeet Singh’s camp and travelled with the Maharajah through different parts of the Sikh Empire. Runjeet conversed freely with the young officer regarding the progress of Burnes’s negotiations at Caubul, the mission of Vickovich, and other matters connected with the politics of Afghanistan. Rumours had then reached him of the designs of the British Government to invite him to co-operate in measures for the overthrow of the Barukzye Sirdars. He discussed the subject with little reserve; and it was evident that the project had little attraction for him.

[223] I should not have thought that the drift of this passage could be misunderstood. And yet it has been said with reference to it [_Hume’s Memoir of Henry Torrens_] that although I have “emphatically denounced the disgraceful act of mutilating official papers,” I have “no single word of censure for diplomatic falsehoods,” but have declared that “diplomacy _should not be_ subjected to the test of truth.” I said that it “is not intended to be,” not that “it should not be,” subjected to such a test. Every writer must be permitted to choose his own weapons of attack. At one time he may employ invective; at another, sarcasm; and the latter may express as strong a detestation of falsehood and baseness as the former. Both in a previous and a subsequent chapter I have expressed my opinion of the manner in which Lord Auckland and his ministers misrepresented the conduct of Dost Mahomed; and in the present passage I do not seek to exculpate Macnaghten, by insinuating my belief that diplomacy is, in its general intent and practice, shamefully destitute of honesty and truth.

[224] The greater part of the proposed treaty was substantially and literally the same as that negotiated in 1833—but some supplementary articles were added to it. One of these recognised the independence of the Ameers of Sindh (Runjeet thereby withdrawing all claims on Shikarpoor), in consideration of the payment by them of compensation-money to the amount of twenty lakhs of rupees; and another recognised the integrity of Herat.

[225] Runjeet was always doubtful whether his soldiers would not shrink from attempting to force the Khybur Pass. He told Mackeson, before the arrival of Macnaghten’s Mission, that the Khalsa entertained very strong prejudices against that kind of warfare, of which it may be added, both he and his chiefs had the vaguest possible idea. He believed that to force the Khybur Pass was to push a column of troops into it, somewhat as you would push them over a narrow bridge, the men in the rear stepping over the bodies of their slaughtered comrades. He had no notion of turning the pass by flank movements—of crowning the heights on each side—and accomplishing by skilful dispositions what could not be done by brute force without a dreadful sacrifice of life. Subsequently, at his interviews with the officers of the British Mission, he reverted to this subject. He said that he had never tried the Khalsa at such work; that he doubted whether they could be induced to march over the corpses of their countrymen; and asked whether British troops could be depended on for such service. He added, that the Sirdars whom he had sent to command his troops at Peshawur, had often urged him to suffer them to move through the Khybur upon Jellalabad; but that he had uniformly refused to listen to their proposals.—[_MS. Notes._]

[226] Runjeet put in a claim for more than a moiety of the tribute-money of twenty lakhs of rupees that was to be wrung from the Ameers of Sindh and divided between him and the Shah; and he asked also for the transfer of Jellalabad to his own rule. The latter demand was steadfastly refused; but an arrangement was effected with regard to the former, at the expense of the Ameers of Sindh; Runjeet receiving a larger amount without detriment to the Shah.

[227] _Mr. Macnaghten to Government. Camp, near Lahore, June 20 1838_: _MS. Records._ Captain Cunninghame [_History of the Sikhs_], says that Runjeet was informed that the expedition for the restoration of Shah Soojah would be undertaken, whether the Maharajah chose to share in it or not. “That Runjeet Singh,” the author adds in a note, “was told he would be left out if he did not choose to come in, does not appear on public record. It was, however, the only convincing argument used during the long discussions, and I think Major Mackeson was made the bearer of the message to that effect.” But this is stated somewhat too broadly. Runjeet Singh was not told that the British, in the event of his refusing to co-operate with the Shah, would undertake by themselves the restoration of Shah Soojah, but that they _might_ be compelled to do so in self-defence. Mackeson told Runjeet, as Macnaghten had before told the Fakir Aziz-ood-een, that in order “to guard against any reproach of reserve or concealment, hereafter,” it was right “to inform him now of the possibility that might occur of our being compelled, in self-defence, to take our own measures to ward off approaching danger, and use our own troops to restore Shah Soojah to the throne.” The Maharajah, receiving this communication as though he had not been prepared for it by the Fakir Aziz-ood-een, told Mackeson at once to prepare the treaty. “Not immediately understanding,” says Mackeson, in his memorandum of this interview, “to what treaty he might allude, I asked the Fakir whether that with the supplementary articles presented by Mr. Macnaghten to the Maharajah’s approval was the one alluded to. The Maharajah observed, ‘That one;’ and the Fakir recalled his attention to the point by asking how the question of Jellalabad was to be settled; to which his Highness replied, that if the Sikhs could not be allowed to hold possession of Jellalabad, some other arrangement could be made, which would have the effect of making the Khalsa-jee act in cordial co-operation—that the friendship between the Sikhs and the British was great, and had lasted many years—that the British and Sikh Governments had no care, and were both able to act independently, but that they had a care for the mutual friendship which had lasted so long. The Fakir hinted to me to suggest some other mode to supersede that of the Sikhs holding possession of Jellalabad. I observed that it now rested with the Maharajah to suggest any plan that might have occurred to his mind. After some further conversation, Runjeet Singh said that an annual tribute of two lakhs of rupees from Shah Soojah would satisfy him for the non-possession of Jellalabad; and this granted, he was willing to co-operate for the restoration of the Shah. The British agents objected to the payment of tribute, as it would be an acknowledgment of inferiority on the part of the Shah; but they consented that the two lakhs should be paid, in the shape of a subsidy, Runjeet Singh undertaking to keep up a force on the frontier, at the call of the Afghan monarch.”—[_Lieutenant Mackeson’s Memorandum of a conversation with the Maharajah, Runjeet Singh, at Lahore, 23d of June, 1838_: _MS. Records._]

[228] Mackeson was the general messenger on the part of the British agent, as was the Fakir Aziz-ood-een, or Kishen Chund, on the part of the Maharajah. These functionaries were constantly going backwards and forwards, in the frightful heat, to communicate the suggestions or replies of their respective chiefs.

[229] It is probable that the demand for Jellalabad was intended to be refused, in order that the refusal might strengthen Runjeet’s claims to increased pecuniary compensation; for before the arrival of the Mission he was in the habit of speaking of Jellalabad as a possession not to be coveted by the Khalsa.

[230] Moollah Shikore was at this time the Shah’s agent and confidential adviser in exile. Further mention will be made of him in a subsequent portion of the narrative.

[231] _Memorandum, by Lieut. Mackeson, of Mr. Macnaghten’s Interview with Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, at Loodhianah, on the 15th of July, 1838_; _MS. Records._

[232] _Lieutenant Mackeson’s Memorandum_: _MS. Records._

[233] “Who would, however,” it was added, “not interfere with the full exercise of his authority over his subjects.”

[234] “He mentioned having a few days before sent an emissary to Kamram to conjure him, for the honour of the Afghans, to hold out for two short months, and he would hear of miracles worked in his favour.”—[_Lieutenant Mackeson’s Memorandum_: _MS. Records._]

[235] Some anxiety was expressed by the Shah lest Prince Timour should be consigned entirely to the guidance of the Sikhs, but he was assured that the presence of British officers in his camp would effectually prevent this.

[236] It will be more convenient for purposes of reference to append, as a note to each article, Macnaghten’s replies to these several points, as given at the subsequent interview: “With regard to the _first_ article,” he writes, “I told the Shah that he might make his mind perfectly at ease, as the British Government had no intention or wish to interfere between his Majesty and his family and dependents.”—[_Mr. Macnaghten to Government, July 17, 1838_: _MS. Records._]

[237] “With regard to the _second_ article, I pointed out to the Shah, that the conquest of Shikarpoor would be directly opposed to one of the articles of the treaty. To the rest of the article I could only say that it would be naturally the wish of the British Government to witness the consolidation and extension, to their proper limits, of his Majesty’s dominions.”—[_MS. Records._]

[238] “On the subject of the _third_ article, I observed that, of course, the Shah did not mean to include the territories ceded to Runjeet Singh by the new treaty, and that the mention of Shikarpoor was inadmissible.”—[_MS. Records._]

[239] “The _fourth_ article I stated would doubtless be approved by the Governor-General.”—[_MS. Records._]

[240] “The wish, I said, expressed in the _fifth_ article would be scrupulously attended to.”—[_MS. Records._]

[241] “With respect to the objection urged in the _sixth_ article, to making money-payments to Maharajah Runjeet Singh, I reiterated the arguments formerly used, to show the distinctions between a tributary and a subsidiary obligation. These arguments, it will be observed, had due weight with his Majesty, for in the written article he brings forward the objection as one that may occur to the world, not as one to which he himself attaches any importance. Ultimately, however, his Majesty admitted that it would be impossible to satisfy all unreasonable objections, and that to those who understood the subject, and whose opinions alone were to be valued, the reciprocal nature of the subsidiary obligation would be sufficiently obvious. With regard to the objection specified in this article, founded on the anticipated want of means, I gave his Majesty encouragement to hope that the British Government would not permit him to be in distress for the means of discharging his necessary pecuniary obligations.”—[_MS. Records._]

[242] “The _seventh_ article, I observed, was at variance with the proposed provisions in the new treaty regarding Shikarpoor. His Majesty, after some conversation, agreed to expunge the article, as well as to exclude the mention of Shikarpoor in other places where it had been introduced from his paper of requests; but he seemed to set great value on his claim to Shikarpoor and the Sindh possessions generally. The Ameers, he observed, had no legitimate title to their dominions but what they derived from him. Shikarpoor, he said, he was particularly desirous to obtain possession of, as being an appropriate place of refuge and escape for his family in case of reverses; but he ultimately admitted that the object would be sufficiently secured to him so long as the British influence prevailed with the Ameers.”—[_MS. Records._]

[243] “On the very delicate subject introduced into the last article, I observed to his Majesty that its connexion with the treaty generally did not seem to me to be obvious, but that I would nevertheless bring it to the notice of the Governor-General, who would, I felt persuaded, take it into consideration with the same anxious desire to gratify his Majesty in this as in all other matters.”—[_MS. Records._]

[244] _MS. Records._

[245] _Mr. Macnaghten to Government, July 17, 1838_: _MS. Records._

[246] Many of these letters were promptly responded to, and in some instances voluntary tenders of service were made by chiefs discontented with the Barukzye rule. Among others, Khan Shereen Khan, chief of the Kuzzilbashes, wrote to Shah Soojah declaring his intention to join his standard. “Since we have been so unfortunate,” said the chief, “as to be far from your royal household, it is only known to God how wretchedly we pass our days. We have now resolved, as soon as the troops of your Majesty arrive on the frontier, to lose no time in waiting upon your Majesty and proving our fidelity by sacrificing ourselves in your service. For God’s sake do not make this letter public.” Even before it was known that there was any intention on the part of the Shah to attempt to regain his kingdom, many of the chiefs, either offended by Dost Mahomed’s alliance with the Persians, or warned by the failure of Burnes’s Mission of the danger of clinging any longer to a falling house, wrote to the Shah, beseeching him to return. “The faggots,” it was said, “are ready. It merely requires the lighted torch to be applied.” It is remarkable that one of the first to tender his services to the Suddozye Prince was that very Abdoollah Khan, Achetzkye, who was the prime mover of the insurrection at Caubul, which brought about the restoration of the Barukzyes.—[_Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, June 5th, 1838_: _MS. Records._] At this time the Shah was restricted from corresponding with his Afghan friends; but Captain Wade, whilst reporting to government the receipt of the letters from Abdoollah Khan and others, recommended that the restriction should be removed. The Shah seems to have laid before the British agent, in perfect good faith, all the letters he received from Afghanistan whilst a pensioner on the British Government.

[247] _Mr. Macnaghten to Government, July 17, 1838_: _MS. Records._

[248] It was, as I have shown, the first wish of the Governor-General that the Sikhs should undertake, single-handed, the invasion of Afghanistan (see Lord Auckland’s Minute and instructions to Mr. Macnaghten in the preceding chapter). Macnaghten, on his way to Runjeet’s Court, wrote to Mr. Masson: “You will have heard that I am proceeding on a mission to Runjeet Singh; and as at my interview with his Highness it is probable that the question of his relations with the Afghans will come on the _tapis_, I am naturally desirous of obtaining the opinion of the best-informed men with respect to them. Would you oblige me, therefore, by stating what means of counteraction to the policy of Dost Mahomed Khan you would recommend for adoption; and whether you think that the Sikhs, using any (and what?) instrument of Afghan agency, could establish themselves in Caubul?”—[_Masson’s Narrative_, vol. iii.] A letter, with a similar suggestion, was sent to Captain Burnes, of whose reception of the project I shall speak more in detail. The matter is further noticeable as an indication of the unwillingness of Lord Auckland to interfere more actively in the politics of Afghanistan.

[249] In this revised edition of the present work, I am bound to state that Mr. Henry Torrens, whose early death, in 1852, is an event to be deplored far beyond the circle of his own private friends, emphatically denied, on reading these statements, and the comments made upon them by the local press of India, his participation in the evil counsels which led Lord Auckland astray. I am bound to give currency to Mr. Torrens’s explanations, which will be found in the Appendix to the present volume, with such comments of my own as they seem to demand.

[250] Mr. Masson says (_Narrative_, vol. iii., p. 495) that Burnes told him that the expedition across the Indus “had been arranged before he reached Simlah, and that when he arrived Torrens and Colvin came running to him and prayed him to say nothing to unsettle his Lordship; that they had all the trouble in the world to get him into the business, and that even now he would be glad of any pretext to retire from it.” I was for a long time, very sceptical of the truth of this story; and I do not now vouch for it. But I know that some men, with far better opportunities than my own of determining the authenticity of the anecdote, are inclined to believe it.

[251] Runjeet was very anxious to obtain Burnes’s private opinion regarding the state of politics in Afghanistan, and the course which it was expedient for the Maharajah to adopt. The Fakir Noor-ood-deen had two or three conferences with Burnes upon these points. The whole history of the negotiations with Dost Mahomed were gone over and reported, from notes taken down at the time, by the Fakir to the Maharajah. Runjeet declared himself very grateful for this information; and sent again to ask Burnes to tell him, not as a public functionary, but as a private friend, whether the restoration of Shah Soojah would be really to his advantage. Burnes’s answer was in the affirmative; and Runjeet seems to have been, to some extent, influenced by it.—[_Captain Burnes to Mr. Macnaghten, Lahore, June 20th, 1838_: _MS. Records._] I do not know whether this letter has ever been made public from any private source. Like almost everything else relating to the proceedings at Lahore and Loodhianah in June and July, 1830, it was studiously suppressed by government.

[252] _To Mr. Macnaghten, June 2, 1838._

[253] Burnes had originally written, “Of Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, personally, I have, that is as ex-King of the Afghans, no very high opinion;” but he had scored out the words. I quote the passages in the text from a copy, the accuracy of which is certified by two Justices of the Peace at Bombay. This letter was cited by Sir John Hobhouse in the House of Commons, in verification of the assertion that Burnes had recommended the course adopted by Lord Auckland. That I may not be myself accused of garbling, I give the letter entire in the _Appendix_.

[254] With reference to the final offers of Dost Mahomed to hold Peshawur, conjointly with Sultan Mahomed, tributary to Lahore (Jebbar Khan acting as the Ameer’s representative), Captain Wade wrote: “They seem to be in some accordance with the overture made by Runjeet Singh to Dost Mahomed before Captain Burnes’s arrival at Caubul, as reported in my despatch of the 8th of August last, and appear, as far as I can judge of them at present, to be more reasonable than his former overtures, though the Maharajah’s opinion of their operation on the Peshawur branch of the family remains to be disclosed. I am ready, with the sanction of the Governor-General, to communicate the proposition now made to Runjeet Singh, and to support by every argument that I can use the expediency of its acceptance by him.”—[_Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, March 3, 1838._]

[255] _Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten_: _MS. Records._ Captain Wade’s letters have been garbled almost as shamelessly as Captain Burnes’s.

[256] In 1837, he had written to Sir Charles Metcalfe, “Every advance you might make beyond the Sutlej to the Westward, in my opinion adds to your military weakness.... If you want your empire to expand, expand it over Oude or over Gwalior, and the remains of the Mahratta empire. Make yourselves complete sovereigns of all within your bounds. _But let alone the Far West._”—[_Life of Lord Metcalfe_, Vol. ii. p. 306.]

[257] The 2nd, 5th, 16th, 27th, 28th, 31st, 35th, 37th, 42nd, 43rd, 48th, and 53rd regiments.

[258] The principal staff-officers were Major P. Craigie, Deputy Adjutant-General; Major W. Garden, Deputy Quartermaster-General; Major J. D. Parsons, Deputy Commissary-General; Major Hough, Deputy Advocate-General; and Major T. Byrne, Assistant Adjutant-General of Queen’s Troops.

[259] _Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, Loodhianah, September 23rd, 1838_: _MS. Records._

[260] “We are now planning a grand campaign,” he wrote on the 22nd of July, “to restore the Shah to the throne of Caubul—Russia having come down upon us. What exact part I am to play I know not, but if full confidence and hourly consultation be any pledge, I am to be chief. I can plainly tell them that it is _aut Cæsar aut nullus_, and if I get not what I have a right to, you will soon see me _en route_ to England.” On the 23rd of August he wrote: “Of myself I cannot tell you what is to become. The commander-in-chief wants to go and to take me—but this will not be, and I believe the chief and Macnaghten will be made a commission—Wade and myself political agents under them. I plainly told Lord Auckland that this does not please, and I am disappointed. He replied that I could scarcely be appointed with the chief in equality, and pledged himself to leave me independent quickly, and in the highest appointment. What can I do when he tells me I am a man he cannot spare. It is an honour, not a disgrace to go under Sir Henry; and as for Macnaghten, he is secretary for all India, and goes _pro tem_. Besides, I am not sorry to see Dost Mahomed ousted by another hand than mine.”—[_Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._] These letters were written to his brother. In another letter addressed to Captain Duncan, also on the 23rd of August, Burnes wrote: “Of my own destinies, even, I cannot as yet give an account. I go as a Political Agent with the Shah, but whether as _the_ Political Agent remains to be seen. I find I bask in favour, but Sir Henry Fane is to go, and he must be the Agent; but it is even hinted that they will place a civilian with him, and employ me in advance. Be it so. I succeed to the permanent employ after all is over.... The chief wishes to go, and to take me with him, and I am highly obliged for his appreciation.”—[_Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes_: _MS._]

[261] See Burnes’s correspondence, quoted in a preceding note.

[262] Lord Auckland, with characteristic kindliness, exerted himself to allay any feelings of mortification that may have welled up in Burnes’s mind; and the latter wisely revoked his determination to be _aut Cæsar aut nullus_. The extracts from Burnes’s letters, given in a preceding note, explain the motives that induced him to forego his original resolve; and the following passage, from another private letter, shows still more plainly the feelings with which he regarded the considerate conduct of the Governor-General, of whom he writes: “‘I mean, therefore,’ continued he (Lord Auckland), ‘to gazette you as a Political Commissioner to Kelat, and when the army crosses, to regard you as an independent political officer to co-operate with Macnaghten.’ Nothing could be more delicately kind, for I have permission, if I like, to send an assistant to Kelat. I start in a week, and drop down the Indus to Shikarpoor, where, with a brace of Commissaries, I prepare for the advance of the army and the disbursement of many lakhs of rupees. I care not for the responsibility; I am firm in the saddle, and have all confidence. I think you will hear the result of my negotiation to be, that the British flag flies at Bukkur.”—[_Private Correspondence of Sir A. Burnes._]

[263] I do not mean that the entire Press of India and England condemned it; but I believe that, at the time it had very few genuine supporters: and I know that now it has fewer still.

[264] Among others the Duke of Wellington, who wrote to Mr. Tucker: “I don’t know that while the siege of Herat continued, particularly by the aid of Russian officers and troops, even in the form of deserters, the Government of India could have done otherwise than prepare for its defence.”—[_Life and Correspondence of Henry St. George Tucker._]

[265] The facts may be briefly repeated in a note. M’Neill recommended the consolidation of Afghanistan under Dost Mahomed. Burnes recommended the same course. Wade recommended the government to rely upon the disunion of the Barukzye Sirdars, and was opposed to consolidation of any kind.

[266] The responsibility of this famous manifesto belongs to Lord Auckland, though some of his colleagues in the government at home have declared themselves willing to share it with him. Sir John Hobhouse, in 1850, told the Official Salaries Committee, in reply to a question on the subject of the Afghan war, that he “did it himself;” and so far as the announcement went entirely to acquit the East India Company of taking part in the origination of the war, it is to be accepted as a laudable revelation of the truth; but although Lord Palmerston and Sir John Hobhouse saw the expediency of extricating the British Government from the difficulties into which the conduct of Mahomed Shah had thrown them, by encouraging a demonstration from the side of India, the expenses of which would be thrown upon the Indian exchequer, they are to be regarded rather as accessories after, than before, the fact. The truth is, that Lord Auckland had determined on the course of policy to be pursued, not before the India Board despatches were written, but before they were received. Sir John Hobhouse stated in the House of Commons (June 23, 1842) that Lord Auckland “must not bear the blame of the measure; it was the policy of government; and he might mention that the despatch which he wrote, stating his opinion of the course that ought to be taken in order to meet expected emergencies, and that written by Lord Auckland, informing him that the expedition had already been undertaken, crossed each other on the way.” When the Whig ministry went out of office in the spring of 1839, it was believed that the Peel cabinet would repudiate the Simlah manifesto, and direct a considerable modification of the measures which were to follow the declaration of war. The bedchamber _émeute_ arrested the formation of the Peel ministry; and it was at least surmised, that it was in no small measure to save Lord Auckland, and to escape the disgrace of a public reversal of their Indian policy, that the Whigs again took the reins of government. After this, Sir John Hobhouse never neglected an opportunity of publicly identifying himself with Lord Auckland’s policy, and was not deterred, even by the disastrous termination of the war, from bravely declaring that he was the author of it.

[267] In a despatch from the Court of Directors to the Governor-General, dated September 20, 1837, there occurs this remarkable passage:-“With respect to the states west of the Indus, you have uniformly observed the proper course, which is to have no political connection with any state or party in those regions, to take no part in their quarrels, but to maintain so far as possible a friendly connection with all of them.”

[268] A general assurance had been given to Runjeet Singh, in reply to a difficulty started by himself, that if the allies met with any reverses, the British Government would advance to their aid; but he had failed to elicit from Macnaghten any more specific promise of co-operation.

[269] Shah Soojah himself said that there would be little chance of his becoming popular in Afghanistan, if he returned to the country openly and avowedly supported, not by his own troops, but by those of the Feringhees. Even the less overt assistance of an infidel government was likely to cast discredit upon the undertaking in the eyes of “true believers.” The Shah talked about the bigotry of the Mahomedans; but it was plain that he had his misgivings on the subject. “During a visit,” says Captain Wade, “which I paid to the Shah, the day before yesterday, he informed me that some Mahomedans of Delhi had been writing to him, to inquire how he could reconcile it to his conscience, as a true believer in the Koran, to accept the assistance of a Christian people to recover his kingdom. The Shah said that he contemplated with pity the bigotry of these people, and began to quote a passage of the Koran to prove their ignorance of its doctrines with reference to the subject on which they had presumed to address him. Having a day or two previously received information that the Newab of Bhopal had made a particular request of his Lordship to be permitted to place a party of his kinsmen and retainers at the service of the British Government on the present occasion, from the desire which he had to testify his deep sense of gratitude to it for the manner in which it had watched and protected the interests of their family in every necessitude of their political existence, I mentioned the circumstance to his Majesty, to show the different views that prevailed among the followers of the faith, both with regard to their duty to the state and to their religion.”—[_Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, October 5, 1838_: _MS. Records._]

[270] The meeting was agreed upon before the British Government had determined to cross the Indus; and Runjeet complained of its tardy accomplishment, on the ground of the expense that he was obliged to incur in keeping his troops together.

[271] It is generally acknowledged that nothing could have been more orderly or more creditable both to the regiments and their commanding officers, than the style in which all the components of the “Army of the Indus” made their way to Ferozepore. Captain Havelock, an excellent authority on such points, says: “A force has never been brought together in any country in a manner more creditable and soldier-like than was the Bengal portion of the Army of the Indus.”

[272] Captain Havelock says the 28th—Colonel Fane, the 29th.

[273] _Captain Havelock’s Narrative_—from which this description has been mainly written. _Colonel Fane’s Five Years in India_; and _Mr. Stocqueler’s Memorials of Afghanistan_ also contribute some details.

[274] “It is worthy of notice that a strange accident befel the old Maharajah in the tent containing the larger gifts of the British Government. He was not very firm on his legs at any time, but here he had the misfortune to stumble over a pile of shells, and fell prostrate before the British guns.”—[_Havelock’s Narrative._] Remembering how the Sikh Empire fell before the British guns at Goojrat, we may at least observe that this was a curious type of the destiny then awaiting the great kingdom founded by Runjeet Singh.

[275] _Stocqueler’s Memorials of Afghanistan._

[276] For an account of the manœuvres both of the British and Sikh divisions, see _Captain Havelock’s Narrative_.

[277] These brigades consisted of the 3rd Buffs, the 2nd, 27th, 5th, 20th, and 53rd Regiments of Native Infantry. Captain Havelock and other military authorities have condemned this decision by lot. It is said that the principle of selection should have been adhered to on the reduction, as well as on the formation of the force. “Sir Henry Fane,” says Captain Havelock, “need not thus have distrusted or paid so poor a compliment to his own sagacity and impartiality; the one had seldom been at fault in India or in Europe, the other was above suspicion. Sortilege, after all, did little for the army in one instance; for it sent forward to the labours of the campaign, the 13th Light Infantry, then as ever zealous, indeed, and full of alacrity, but even at Ferozepore shattered by disease; the spirit of its soldiers willing, but unequal to the task; whilst it doomed to inactivity the Buffs, one of the most effective European corps in India.” This is the impartial testimony of an officer of the 13th Light Infantry. It was written immediately after the first campaign of the Army of the Indus. No writer would now regret the chance which sent Sale and Dennie into Afghanistan, and associated the name of the 13th Light Infantry with some of the most illustrious incidents of the war.

[278] _Colonel H. Pottinger to Government_: _Published Papers relating to Sindh._

[279]

“Just and necessary!” ——Earth is sick, And Heaven is weary of the hollow words Which States and Kingdoms utter when they talk Of truth and justice.

[280] I do not intend to enter into the politics of Sindh more than is absolutely necessary to the elucidation of the history of the war in Afghanistan; but it ought to be mentioned here that the harsh and unjust treatment of the Ameers in 1838-39 has been defended or extenuated upon the grounds of an alleged traitorous correspondence with Mahomed Shah of Persia. A letter from one of the Ameers to the “King of Kings” was intercepted, but Colonel Pottinger declared that it was of no political importance, but simply an ebullition of Sheeahism, addressed to Mahomed Shah as Defender of the Faith.—[_Correspondence relating to Afghanistan._] A letter, also said to have been written by the Persian King to two of the Ameers (Mahomed Khan and Nussur Khan), acknowledging the receipt of letters from them, and exhorting them to look to him for protection, was forwarded from Khelat to Runjeet Singh, who sent it in through Captain Wade to the Governor-General. But Major Todd, who by this time had joined Shah Soojah at Loodhianah, “did not hesitate to pronounce it, from its style and language, to be a palpable fabrication.”—[_Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, October 24, 1838._ _MS. Records._]

[281] _Captain Wade to Mr. Macnaghten, Nov. 8 and 9, 1838._ _MS. Records._

[282] Shah Soojah’s force passed through Ferozepore on the 2nd. Major Todd accompanied the Shah. Macnaghten joined the royal camp at Shikarpoor.

[283] It had been no easy matter to provide carriage-cattle for that immense assemblage. The camels, which constituted the bulk of the beasts of burden, had been mostly drawn on hire from Bekaneer, Jaysulmer, and the northern and north-western provinces of India; but the country had been so drained, that at last it became necessary to indent upon the brood-camels of the government stud at Hissar.

[284] This road, some 280 miles in length, had been prepared, under Mackeson’s directions, to facilitate the march of our troops.

[285] As the army advanced, the Khan, to whose court Mackeson had been despatched to conclude a treaty of protective alliance, exerted himself to assist the enterprise, and exhibited the most friendly feeling towards Shah Soojah. He gave the Shah two guns—made him a present of money—sent a party of irregular horse, under one of his chief officers, to escort him through the Bahwulpore dominions; and allowed the officers of the Shah’s contingent to recruit their regiment from the ranks of his own regular infantry. The Shah’s regiments were in this way raised to their full strength, six hundred men having been drawn from the Bahwulpore army.—[_MS. Notes._]

[286] Captain Havelock.

[287] Some of the Shah’s troops were very unreasonable in their expectations and their complaints. The raw levies of horse, just recruited from the grain districts of Upper India, made violent complaints because they found that to the westward barley was the food of horses.

[288] Sir Henry Fane was much pleased with the economy of Bahwul Khan’s Court. Though not on an extensive scale, it was perhaps, better ordered, on the whole, than that of any native potentate at the time.

[289] The cession of Bukkur was extremely distasteful to Meer Roostum. It was calculated to lower him in the eyes both of the other Ameers and of his own subjects; and Burnes, fearing that he would be dissuaded by his relatives, made the stipulation for the surrender of the place a separate article of the treaty, in order that the Ameer might conceal it from them if he feared that they would remonstrate against it. When Burnes despached Mohun Lal to Khyrpore, to deliver the treaty and the separate article, “face to face,” to the Ameer, and to demand his acceptance of its terms, “the consternation,” says Burnes, “caused by this public declaration, was very great. The Ameer first offered another fort in its stead; next, to find security that our treasure and munitions were protected; but the Moonshee, as instructed, replied to all that nothing but the unqualified cession of the fortress of Bukkur, during the war, would satisfy me. He said it was the heart of his country, his honour was centred in keeping it, his family and children would have no confidence if it were given up, and that if I came to Khyrpore the Ameer could speak in person to me many things. To this I had instructed the Moonshee to say, that it was impossible till he signed the treaty, as I asked a plain question and wanted a plain answer.”—[_Published Papers._] Earnestly was Meer Roostum entreated by his family not to sign the treaty, but to resist the unjust demand. Greatly perplexed and alarmed, he wrote a touching letter of entreaty to Burnes; but by this time his doom was sealed. It was useless for him any longer to struggle against his fate; so on the morning of the 24th of December he sent for Mohun Lal, told him that Burnes had been the first and best friend of the Khyrpore state, but that he had made an unexpected demand upon him, and that his good name would be irrecoverably lost if Lord Auckland did not seize upon Kurachee, or some other place from the Hyderabad family; who were our enemies, and now triumphing, whilst he, our dearest friend, was thus depressed. If they were suffered to escape, he said, that his only course would be to commit suicide. “With this,” wrote Burnes to Government, “and saying _Bismillah!_ (in the name of God) he sealed the treaty and the separate article in the presence of Ali Morad Khan, Meer Zungee, Soolaman Abdur, and about twenty other people.” A day or two afterwards, Burnes himself called on Meer Roostum and received his submission in person. The poor old man, declaring that he was irretrievably disgraced, asked what he could now do to prove the sincerity of his friendship for the British Government. “The answer to this declaration,” wrote Burnes, “was plain—to give us orders for supplies, and to _place all the country as far as he could at our command_—_and he has done so as far as he can._”—[_Burnes to Government: Khyrpore, Dec. 28, 1838._ _Published Papers._]

[290] “The aspect of affairs to the south being anything but satisfactory, the Commander-in-Chief intimated to me, in the presence of General Cotton, that the passage of the army across the Indus, even had the bridge been ready, which it will not be for ten days, was inexpedient, whilst matters were unadjusted at Hyderabad—that it was further his decided opinion that a portion of the army should at once march down towards Hyderabad. Participating entirely in these sentiments, as far as political matters were concerned, I felt myself bound to give the fullest effect to the views of his Excellency, and notify the intended movement of the troops to the south to Meer Roostum Khan.”—[_Sir A. Burnes to Government: Rohree, January 28, 1839._ _MS. Records._]

[291] Some days after Cotton’s force had moved down the river, a requisition came for a troop of horse artillery, a detachment of cavalry, and a brigade of infantry.—[_Havelock’s Narrative._]

[292] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[293] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[294] _Ibid., Feb. 5, 1839._

[295] See _Outram’s Rough Notes_.

[296] Their share was twenty lakhs of rupees, a moiety of which was paid down. Seven more lakhs, making up the gross amount to be paid by the Talpoor Princes, were paid by the Ameer of Khyrpore.

[297] “The city of Hyderabad,” says Dr. James Burnes, in his _Visit to the Court of Sindh_, an interesting and valuable work, “is a collection of wretched low mud hovels, as destitute of the means of defence as they are of external elegance or internal comfort; and even the boasted stronghold of the Ameer, which surmounts their capital, is but a paltry erection of ill-burnt bricks, crumbling gradually to decay, and perfectly incapable of withstanding for an hour the attack of regular troops.”

[298] Kennedy.

[299] “Sir Willoughby,” wrote the Envoy to Mr. Colvin, on the 24th of February, “made his appearance in camp yesterday morning. He is evidently disposed to look upon his Majesty and his disciplined troops and myself as mere cyphers. Any hint from me, however quietly and modestly given, was received with hauteur; and I was distinctly told that I wanted to assume the command of the army; that he, Sir Willoughby, knew no superior but Sir John Keane, and that he would not be interfered with, &c., &c. All this arose out of my requesting 1000 camels for the use of the Shah and his force. Sir Willoughby was ably backed by the Commissariat officers. My arguments were urged throughout in the most mild and conciliatory tone. I was determined on no account to lose my temper; and we parted at a late hour last night very good friends. I told him I was the last man in the world who would presume to interfere with his military arrangements; but I found it requisite to tell him, during one of our conversations, that if he thought it for the good of the service to leave Shah Soojah in the lurch, without the means of moving, I should esteem it my duty, as a political officer, to protest most strongly against the arrangement, and that the Governor-General would determine which of us was right. Sir Willoughby dined with me, and at dinner the important despatches from the Governor-General and yourself, dated the 5th instant, were put into my hands. We discussed their contents in my private tent afterwards—present Sir W. C. Todd, and Burnes.”—[_Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._]

[300] Havelock.

[301] “The conduct of the officers of the Khelat chief has been most creditable and praiseworthy. Syud Mahomed Sheriff, the Governor of Gundava, and Moolla Ramzan, a slave of the Khan, have attended me the whole way, procured a band of eighty of the natives to escort us, and they likewise addressed the Ameers and the neighbouring Beloochee tribes to attempt at their peril to molest us. Such has been the confidence thus given, that a great body of the migratory inhabitants from Cutchee availed themselves of our escort to ascend into Afghanistan.”—[_Burnes to Macnaghten: March 16, 1839._ _MS. Records._]

[302] See _Havelock’s Narrative_.

[303] _Hough’s Narrative of the Operations of the Army of the Indus._

[304] Captain Havelock says: “From the 28th of March, the loaf of the European soldier was diminished in weight, the Native troops received only half instead of a full seer of _ottah_ (that is a pound of flour) _per diem_, and the camp-followers, who had hitherto found it difficult to subsist on half a seer, were of necessity reduced to the famine allowance of a quarter of a seer.”

[305] “The Khan, with a good deal of earnestness, enlarged upon the undertaking the British had embarked in—declaring it to be one of vast magnitude and difficult accomplishment—that instead of relying on the Afghan nation, our government had cast them aside and inundated the country with foreign troops—that if it was our end to establish ourselves in Afghanistan, and give Shah Soojah the nominal sovereignty of Caubul and Candahar, we were pursuing an erroneous course—that all the Afghans were discontented with the Shah, and all Mahomedans alarmed and excited at what was passing—that, day by day, men returned discontented, and we might find ourselves awkwardly situated if we did not point out to Shah Soojah his errors, if the fault originated with him, and alter them if they sprung from ourselves—that the chief of Caubul was a man of ability and resource, and though we could easily put him down by Shah Soojah, even in our present mode of procedure, we could never win over the Afghan nation by it.”—[_Burnes to Macnaghten: Khelat, March 30, 1839._ _MS. Records._]

[306] _Burnes to Macnaghten: Khelat, April 2, 1839._

[307] The Shah and his Contingent moved from Shikarpoor on the 7th of March.

[308] “His Majesty the Shah is naturally anxious to occupy a prominent position in our movements, and it is very desirable, on political grounds, that he should do so: I trust, therefore, that your Excellency will see fit to attend to his Majesty’s wishes in this particular, and to authorise his being in advance with at least a portion of his own troops, after the junction of the several divisions shall have been effected, or rather after you have made your final arrangements for the order of our advance. This you will observe will be conformable to the wishes of the Governor-General, as expressed in the accompanying extracts. His Lordship never contemplated the leaving behind any portion of the Shah’s force, except in the case of opposition being shown by Sindh and Khelat.”—[_Mr. Macnaghten to Sir J. Keane: Shikarpoor, Feb. 27, 1839._ _Unpublished Correspondence._]

[309] “I am exceedingly obliged to you for the attention you have paid to my suggestions regarding the Shah’s troops; but your want of camels is so pressing, that I feel it impossible to retain the 1000 camels placed at my disposal. Deeply as I regret, on political grounds, the necessity of leaving behind any portion of the troops of his Majesty, I feel that any scruples on this score must give way to the more urgent exigencies of the public service.”—[_Mr. Macnaghten to Sir J. Keane: Shikarpoor, March 3, 1839._ _Unpublished Correspondence._]

[310] _Mr. Macnaghten to Sir W. Cotton: March 15, 1839._ _Unpublished Correspondence._

[311] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[312] From Bagh, Macnaghten wrote to the Governor-General’s Private Secretary: “This is a wretched country in every respect. It may be said to produce little else but plunderers; but with the knowledge we now have of it, we may bid defiance to the Russian hordes as far as this route is concerned. Any army might be annihilated in an hour by giving it either too much or too little water. The few wells that exist might easily be rendered unavailable, and by just cutting the Sewee bund the whole country might be deluged.”—[_Mr. Macnaghten to Mr. Colvin: Camp Bagh, March 22, 1839._ _Unpublished Correspondence._]

[313] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[314] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[315] The head-quarters of the 2nd brigade were left in garrison at Quettah, under General William Nott, of the Company’s army, who, at a later period, so distinguished himself in command of the troops at Candahar. Whilst Sir Willoughby Cotton was commanding the Bengal army in chief, Nott had commanded a division; but when Sir John Keane joined the Bengal column, Cotton fell back to the divisional command, and Nott returned to the brigade to which he had originally been posted. Out of this much controversy arose; the command of the other division of the “Army of the Indus” having been conferred on General Willshire, of the Queen’s army, a junior major-general, but an older officer and lieutenant-colonel.

[316] Foremost among these was the notorious Hadjee Khan, Khaukur, whose sudden defection broke up the Barukzye camp, just as Rahun-dil-Khan and Mehr-dil-Khan were meditating a night attack on the Shah’s Contingent. He joined the Shah on the 20th of April, and from this time the Sirdars saw that their cause was hopeless. Further mention of this chief will be found in a subsequent chapter.

[317] I have not attempted in this chapter to give a minute account of the march of the three columns of the invading army to Candahar. It is no part of my design to render this work conspicuous for the completeness of its military details. I do not underrate their importance; but the operations of the Army of the Indus have already been so minutely chronicled, that I have only to refer the reader to the works of Havelock, Kennedy, and Hough. The real history of the march is to be found in the records of the Commissariat department. The difficulty of obtaining carriage and supplies was almost unprecedented, and the expenditure incurred was enormous. There were two different Commissariat departments (the Bengal and the Shah’s) sometimes to be found bidding against one another. Everything was paid for at a ruinous price. The sums paid for the hire and purchase of carriage-cattle were preposterous; and the loss incurred by government from the deaths of the animals may be surmised, when it is stated that the number of deaths between Ferozepore and Candahar has been estimated at not less than 20,000. Large sums, too, were often paid for demurrage. For example, on one batch of camels hired from Bekanier and Jaysulmere, 44,000 rupees were paid for demurrage and remuneration for losses before they reached the place (Shikarpoor) at which their services were required, or were even seen by our Commissariat officers.—[_MS. Notes._]

[318] _Unpublished Correspondence of Sir W. H. Macnaghten._

[319] Captain Havelock, who is by no means disposed to take an unfavorable view of the policy out of which emanated the assembling of the Army of the Indus, says: “Unless I have been deceived, all the national enthusiasm of the scene was entirely confined to his Majesty’s immediate retainers. The people of Candahar are said to have viewed the whole affair with the most mortifying indifference. Few of them quitted the city to be present in the plains; and it was remarked with justice, that the passage in the diplomatic programme which presented a place behind the throne for ‘the populace restrained by the Shah’s troops,’ became rather a bitter satire on the display of the morning.” Compare Dr. Kennedy’s version of these proceedings. All the private accounts I have received, confirm the truth of the printed narratives.

[320] Kennedy.

[321] Where they remained as guests of Mahomed Shah until the withdrawal of the British from Afghanistan.

[322] As at Herat, the four principal streets meet in the centre of the city, and at their junction are covered over with a great dome. The picturesque accessories of Candahar are by no one so well described as by Lieutenant Rattray, in his letter-press accompaniments to his admirable series of “Views in Afghanistan.” With true artistic feeling, he writes; “Viewing Candahar from without, or at a distance, there is no peculiarity in its structure to strike the eye, as nothing appears above the long, high walls, but the top of Ahmed Shah’s tomb, the summits of a few minarets, and the upper parapets of the citadel. But the interior, as seen from the battlements, cannot fail to delight. Its irregular mud-houses, partly in ruins, varied with trees and minarets; the square red-brick dwellings, with doors and windows of Turkish arches; the lofty habitations of the Hindoo; the tents pitched here and there on the flat house-tops; the long terraces crowded with people, busied in their various callings in the open air; the dung and mud-plastered hut of the Khaukur, with his heavy, wild-looking buffaloes tethered round it; the high enclosures of the different tribes; the warlike castles of the chieftains; the gaily-decorated palace of some great Douranee Lord, with its fountains, squares, and court-yards; and the domed houses of the other inhabitants, the bazaars, mosques, turrets, and cupolas, rising up in the midst of stupendous and inaccessible mountains,—from the whole rise a panorama pleasing to look upon.”

[323] Kennedy. The author adds: “Shah Soojah had sheltered himself in one, Mr. Macnaghten in another, and Sir Alexander Burnes in a third. The latter had been rebuilt by one of the chiefs of Candahar for his favourite wife. It had an air of magnificence and grandeur where it stood: but in the Mogul Serai of Surat, or in Ahmedabad, would be passed unobserved.”

[324] See _ante_, page 332.

[325] “Facts regarding our Political Relations with Herat, and the Conduct of Yar Mahomed Khan, from November, 1837, to February, 1841,” by Dr. J. S. Login, attached to the Heratee Mission.

[326] Lieutenant North, of the Bombay Engineers, and Drs. Login and Ritchie, also accompanied them. The Mission left Candahar on the 21st of June, and reached Herat on the 25th of July.

[327] Havelock.

[328] Inverarity and Wilmer. The former was murdered; the latter escaped with his life.

[329] A convoy of camels laden with grain had been for some time expected from the southward, under the charge of a Lohanee merchant, named Surwar Khan. Some efforts had been made by the enemy to intercept this convoy, or to corrupt the Lohanee chief; and it is said that nothing but the determined fidelity of the leader of the Irregular Horse sent to escort it into Candahar, saved the convoy from being carried off to the Barukzyes. It reached Candahar, but there a new difficulty presented itself. The camel-drivers refused to proceed. There were 20,000 maunds of grain now at the disposal of our Commissariat officers; but the contumacy of these men was now likely to render it wholly useless. Surwar Khan had contracted to bring the convoy to Candahar; but the camel-drivers, afraid of the vengeance of Dost Mahomed, refused to proceed any further. There was no contending against this; so the supplies were made over to the Commissariat, and stored at Candahar, where a detachment of our troops was left.

[330] The Kohistan is the hill country to the north of Caubul, lying between the capital and the Hindoo-Koosh.

[331] This was the account of the Ameer’s tactics given by Hyder Khan. Mohun Lal, upon whose authority I instance it, was in daily personal communication with the Prince after his capture, and ought to be well informed upon this point.

[332] “The town,” says Lieutenant Rattray, “stands on the extreme point of a range of hills, which slope upwards and command the north-east angle of the Balla Hissar, near which is perched the tomb of Belool the Wise, among ruined mosques and grave-stones. As a city, it will not bear comparison with Caubul or Candahar; and a previous visit to the bazaars of either would spoil you for the darkened narrow streets and small charloo of Ghuznee. However, it possesses snug houses and capital stabling, sufficient for a cavalry brigade, within its walls; and in the citadel, particularly, the squares and residences of its former governors were in many instances spacious and even princely in their style and decorations.”

[333] The enemy, dislodged from the garden, retreated to an outwork, whence they directed a heavy fire upon our people, and did some mischief among them. Captain Graves, of the 16th Native Infantry, and Lieutenant Homrigh, of the 48th, were wounded.

[334] There has been so much bitter controversy on this unhappy subject, that I have not written this bare outline of the event without instituting inquiries among those who were most likely to have had some personal cognizance of it. That I have rightly characterised these murders I know, for I have the evidence of one who saw the butchery going on. An officer of the highest character writes, in reply to my inquiries: “As regards what is called the Ghuznee massacre, I was walking one day in camp, and came upon the King’s tents, at the rear of which I saw a fearfully bloody sight. There were forty or fifty men, young and old. Many were dead; others at their last gasp; others with their hands tied behind them; some sitting, others standing, awaiting their doom; and the King’s executioners and other servants amusing themselves (for actually they were laughing and joking, and seemed to look upon the work as good fun) with hacking and maiming the poor wretches indiscriminately with their long swords and knives. I was so horrified at coming so suddenly on such a scene of blood, that I was for the instant as it were, spell-bound. On inquiry, I ascertained that the King had ordered this wholesale murder in consequence of one of the number (they were, or were said to be, all _Ghazees_, who had shortly before been taken prisoners) having stabbed, in his Majesty’s presence, a Pesh-Khidmut, or body-attendant of the King. My friend and I made our exit; and he went direct to the Envoy’s tent and reported the circumstance.”—[_MS. Correspondence._]

[335] The advance consisted of the light companies of the four European regiments; the remaining companies composed the other sections of the storming columns. The regiments were: the 2nd, the 13th, and 17th (Queen’s), and the Company’s European Regiment.

[336] Hough says: “Lieutenant Durand was obliged to scrape the hose with his finger-nails, finding the powder failed to ignite on the first application of the port-fire.”

[337] Havelock. Hough says: “The explosion was heard by nearly all.”

[338] Havelock.

[339] Captain Peat.

[340] I give the circumstances of Sale’s escape in the words of Captain Havelock, who has detailed them with trustworthy minuteness. “One of their number rushing over the fallen timbers, brought down Brigadier Sale by a cut in the face with his sharp _shunsheer_ (sabre). The Afghan repeated his blow as his opponent was falling; but the pummel, not the edge of his sword, this time took effect, though with stunning violence. He lost his footing, however, in the effort, and Briton and Afghan rolled together amongst the fractured timbers. Thus situated, the first care of the Brigadier was to master the weapon of his adversary. He snatched at it, but one of his fingers met the edge of the trenchant blade. He quickly withdrew his wounded hand, and adroitly replaced it over that of his adversary, so as to keep fast the hilt of his _shunsheer_. But he had an active and powerful opponent, and was himself faint from the loss of blood. Captain Kershaw, of the 13th, aide-de-camp to Brigadier Baumgardt, happened in the _mêlée_ to approach the scene of conflict: the wounded leader recognised and called to him for aid. Kershaw passed his drawn sabre through the body of the Afghan; but still the desperado continued to struggle with frantic violence. At length, in the fierce grapple, the Brigadier for a moment got uppermost. Still retaining the weapon of his enemy in his left hand, he dealt him with his right a cut from his own sabre, which cleft his skull from the crown to the eyebrows. The Mahomedan once shouted, ‘_Ne Ullah!_’ (Oh! God!) and never moved or spoke again.”—[_Captain Havelock’s Narrative._]

[341] Havelock. The colour of the 13th was first planted by the hand of Ensign Frere—a nephew of John Hookham Frere.

[342] Havelock. The military historian attributes the forbearance of the soldiery to the fact, that no spirit rations had been served out to them during the preceding fortnight. “No candid man,” he says, “of any military experience, will deny that the character of the scene, in the fortress and the citadel, would have been far different if individual soldiers had entered the town primed with arrack, or if spirituous liquors had been discovered in the Afghan depôts.”

[343] I have been assured by an officer on the staff of the Shah’s army, that he was near his Majesty at the taking of Ghuznee, when under fire, and that he exhibited great coolness and courage. He is said by my informant, who was close beside him, to have sate “as firm as a rock, not showing the slightest alarm either by word or gesture, and seeming to think it derogatory to his kingly character to move an inch whilst the firing lasted.”—[_MS. Correspondence._]

[344] Mohun Lal says: “Captain John Conolly conducted them, with every mark of deference, to a house in the town, where it fell to my lot to provide them with everything necessary which they wanted: and that responsible charge of them I had for a long time, and executed it to the satisfaction of the ladies, until they were sent to India.”—[_Life of Dost Mahomed._]

[345] Captain Tayler, Brigade-Major of the 4th Brigade. Mohun Lal says that “Major Macgregor found him concealed with an armed party in the tower, waiting for the night.” Mr. Stocqueler (_Memorials of Afghanistan_) attributes the honour of the capture to Brigadier Roberts, who directed Captain Tayler to proceed to the house.

[346] “The Sirdar, mounted on a small horse, and accompanied by a few of his companions, was conducted by Major Macgregor to the tent of the Commander-in-Chief. Sir Alexander Burnes and myself were sent for, and as soon as the Sirdar saw him he felt a little easy in his mind; and discovering me with him, the expression of his countenance was at once changed, and he asked me for a glass of water. Lord Keane allowed him to remain in my tent, under the charge of Sir A. Burnes. I clothed him with my own clothes every day, and he partook of my meals.”—[_Mohun Lal’s Life of Dost Mahomed._]

[347] Outram.

[348] Whether this step was taken by Dost Mahomed on his own account, or whether it was recommended or agreed to by his principal partisans, does not very clearly appear.

[349] Mohun Lal says that the Newab, who had acted with the greatest friendliness towards Burnes and his Mission, and was known to have been at the head of the English party in Caubul, begged that the wife of Hyder Khan might be given up to him; but preferred the request in vain. He sought an interview, too, with his nephew; and it would have been granted to him, but the official references caused delay, and the Newab took his departure without seeing the Sirdar. He said significantly to the Envoy, in the course of conversation, “If Shah Soojah is really a King, and come to the kingdom of his ancestors, what is the use of your army and name? You have brought him, by your money and arms, into Afghanistan. Leave him now with us Afghans, and let him rule us if he can.”

[350] Havelock.

[351] General Harlan, who was at Caubul at this time, has written an account of the desertion of Dost Mahomed by his followers at Urghundeh, which only wants a conviction of its entire truth to render it extremely interesting. According to this writer, the Ameer was not only deserted, but plundered by his followers at the last. “A crowd of noisy disorganised troops,” he says, “insolently pressed close up to the royal pavilion—the guards had disappeared—the groom holding the Prince’s horse was unceremoniously pushed to and fro—a servant audaciously pulled away the pillow which sustained the Prince’s arm—another commenced cutting a piece of the splendid Persian carpet—the beautiful praying rug of the Prince was seized on by a third.... ‘Take all,’ said he, ‘that you find within, together with the tent.’ In an instant the unruly crowd rushed upon the pavilion—swords gleamed in the air and descended upon the tent—the canvas, the ropes, the carpets, pillows, screens, &c., were seized and dispersed among the plunderers.”

[352] The names of many of them were subsequently associated with the later incidents of the war. They were Captains Wheler, Troup, Lawrence, Backhouse, Christie, and Erskine; Lieutenants Broadfoot, Hogg, Ryves, and Dr. Worral. Captains Tayler and Trevor joined them on the 8th.

[353] Outram says he was a melon-seller.

[354] See the “Life of Hadjee Khan Khaukur, the Talleyrand of the East,” published originally in the _Delhi Gazette_. It is attributed to the pen of Arthur Conolly. The writer adds: “In the camp of those chiefs conspiracies against Shah Soojah and his allies were daily agitated. Their letters formed the pride, the comfort, the hope, and the amusement of the Caubul Court.... Sometimes it was proposed by the traitors to attack the English camp in concert with the Ghilzyes at night. Fear prevented this plot ripening; but had the army met with a repulse, it would undoubtedly have been attacked in rear. At last, at a full meeting—I have it from the lips of one present at it—it was determined to join Dost Mahomed _en masse_. At this meeting were the Hadjee Khan, Hadjee Dost, Fyztullub Khan, Noorzye, and many others. They had been deceived by a false report of a partial action of cavalry the day before; the opportunity had arrived, they thought, for giving us the _coup de grace_. Hardly had the conclave separated, when intelligence was received of the capture of Ghuznee. It need hardly be said that, a few hours afterwards, Hadjee Khan and the rest were congratulating his Majesty on the splendid victory.”

[355] Akbar Khan, who had by this time been withdrawn from the defence of the Khybur line, and had joined his father’s camp prostrated by sickness.

[356] Others, however, thought that his failure was fortunate, it being only too probable, in their opinion, that, if he had come up with the fugitive, his little party would have been overwhelmed by the followers of the Ameers and the traitorous Afghan horsemen whom Hadjee Khan had taken with him.

[357] He was confined at Chunar, where he seems to have borne his imprisonment with considerable philosophy.

[358] “With regard to the ordnance captured at Urghundeh, the guns were of all calibres, chiefly below 6-pounder—one a 17-pounder, and a few of different sizes, between 17 and 12-pounders.... The number of shot left at Urghundeh was 4270, of various sizes.... The shot is hammered iron, and so uneven, that, unless weighed, their weight could not be told. They are chiefly much under 6-pounder shot.... With regard to the other stores taken at Urghundeh, nothing was of the slightest service, except the old iron of the carriages, and the axle-trees, also good as old iron only, and to which purpose they have been appropriated.”—[_Lieutenant Warburton to Sir W. H. Macnaghten; Caubul, August 15, 1841._ _MS. Records._]

[359] “Onward,” says Captain Havelock, “moved the force, and an hour had not elapsed since the day broke when it came full upon the abandoned ordnance of the fallen Barukzye. Twenty-two pieces of various calibre, but generally good guns, on field carriages, superior to those generally seen in the armies of Asiatic Princes, were parked in a circle in the Ameer’s late position. Two more were placed in battery in the village of Urghundeh, at the foot of the hills.... The route by which we had advanced was flanked by a deep, impracticable ravine, on which the Afghan left would have rested: there their artillery had been parked, and would probably from this point have swept the open plain, and searched the narrow defile by which we would have debouched upon. Their front was open for the exertions of a bold and active cavalry, and here the Ameer might at least have died with honour.”

[360] Havelock.

[361] I am indebted for this, as for much else, to Captain Havelock. There is but little in the pages of the military analist to disturb the gravity of the historical inquirer, but it is impossible to restrain a smile at the happy wording of the following: “Let me not forget to record that Moonshee Mohun Lal, a traveller and an author, as well as his talented master, appeared on horseback on this occasion in a new upper garment of a very gay colour, and under a turban of very admirable fold and majestic dimensions, and was one of the gayest as well as the most sagacious and successful personages in the whole _cortége_.”

[362] Burnes was of this opinion: he erred on that point in common with many others; but his views from first to last were in favour of making the Dost our ally.—H.T.

[363] Here Sir A. Burnes had inserted the words, “I have—that is, as ex-King of the Afghans, no very high opinion;” and had drawn his pen through them. He had also originally written the word “Of” to begin the sentence, instead of “As for.”

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Transcriber’s note:

Obvious errors were corrected.