1^ -^ \ 1 e. ■f x^ir-^ % Cf' *. '^ 2^ -i OV 'i- \'^^<-= /\ ■ft O . r^i. , - V (^ , .-C^ (*• \' ^ ^ '-^D .0^ c«^^'. .\ <\ F. S.Vicual,£itkTkUf LINES ADDRESSED TO DOST MAHOMED ON THE BATTLE FIELD OF KANDAHAR, WHEN CON- TENDING WITH SHUJAH, 1834. Stand ! cried his Mentor, whither wouldst thou flee I The ground thou stand'st on 's all the world to thee ; Thy throne the saddle, crowned by natal star — Thou stand'st a warrior in the midst of war ! Here find a throne, or fill a hero's grave, Where rest the houseless and the hopeless brave ; For God, the Prophet, and thy deeds of fame, ±\ martyr's paradise, or victor's name. A MEMOIR OF INDIA AND AVGHANISTAUN, WITH OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT EXCITING AND CRITICAL STATE AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF THOSE COUNTRIES. COMPRISING REMARKS ON THE MASSACRE OF THE BRITISH ARMY IN CABUL, BRITISH POLICY IN INDIA, A DETAILED DESCRIPTIVE CHARACTER OF DOST MAHOMED AND HIS COURT, ETC. Wit^ an ^j)|>en^i): ON THE FULFILMENT OP A TEXT OF DANIEL, IN REFERENCE TO THE PRESENT PROPHETIC CONDITION OF MAHOMEDAN NATIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, AND THE SPEEDY DISSOLUTION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE. BY J. HARLAN, LATE COUNSELLOR OF STATE, AID-DE-CAMP, AND GENERAL OF THE STAFF TO DOST MAHOMED, AMEER OF CABUL. PHILADELPHIA: J. DOBSON, 106 CHESTNUT STREET. R. BALDWIN, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. H. BOSSANGE, 11 QUAI VOLTAIRE, PARIS. 1842. Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1842, by Jud^ DoBsoN, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States in and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. a,\p ?3 "^^^v C. Sherman, Printer, 19 St. James Street. CONTENTS. PREFACE. Massacre — Whigs — American interest — Tory policy — British tenure of India — Successful invasion of Cabul by the British — Whig policy opposed by the Tories — Army of the Indus — Importance to England of the Cabul conquest — Destitute condition of the British army — Signal failure of the expedi- tion against Cabul — True policy of England in Cabul — Genius of the Avghan institutions — Abuses of the English policy in Cabul — English diplomacy at fault — Avghans fierce, semi-barbarous, and unconquerable — Intricate topo- graphy of Avghanistaun — M'Naghten's false policy — Cru- elty of the English — Citizens of Cabul favourable to the English — Murder of the Russian ambassador in Persia — City of Cabul shelled by an English mortar battery — M'Naghten killed — Dismal prospect of the British army — Alternative — Indian troops contemptible — Proper military movement for the English — Metropolitan importance of Cabul — Ability of Cabul to provide for the subsistence of a garrison — Treasonable treaty of the English functionaries — Origin of the feud betwixt Shah Shujah and Dost Ma- homed — Origin of Dost Mahomed's power — Origin of the ]V CONTENTS. war of the British with Dost Mahomed—Policy of Dost Mahomed— English diplomacy at fault — Consequences- Policy of Shujah — 0;i ^^7 of Russian policy - - 1 CHAPTER I. Reply to Count Bjornstjerna's Work on British India — Preliminary remarks — Sources of information on India, Persia, and Avghanistaun — Value of the Count's opinions illustrated — His misstatements displayed and corrected — His false inferences from philology — His assertions false and inconsistent with himself — Historical fact misstated — Inquiry into the stability of the British tenure of India — Power of opinion — Routes into India — Proper route into India from the north of Europe — Topography of the routes into India — Population of British India — Diplomacy the weapon for Russia — Political obstacles to an invasion from the North removed — Russian Policy in Persia — Persian policy — Uzbeck policy — Russian influence in Central Asia — Inducements to invade India — Reflections on the progress of civilization — Missionary efforts in India — Traditionary prophecies of the Orientals — Eastern Question — American missionaries — Moral condition of the Asiatic — Russia pre- ferred to England by the nations of India - - - 25 CHAPTER n. Reply to Count Bjornstjerna's India, continued — Misre- presentations confuted — of topography — of moral obstacles — Avghan policy — Practicability of Avghanistaun for artil- lery — Relative powers of the camel, north and south of the Caucasus — Consequences of English errors in policy — mili- tary insignificance of the Indians generally — Plan of a Russian invasion — Character of the British government in India — Policy of the English, and of Alexander the Great, CONTENTS. V contrasted — Plan of Alexander's conquests — His philan- thropy — Antiquities still prove the extent of civilization — Results of the English conquests — of their abuses — Origin of the British power in India — Their artifice and duplicity "—Their rule of " divide et impera" — Confirmation of the East India Company's power ----- 55 CHAPTER III. Geographical Boundaries of British India — Character of the population — of the soldier — Physical powers — Evils of Fiscal policy — Mendicity and misery - - - 70 CHAPTER IV. Foreign Relations of British India — River Indus the natural, moral, and political frontier of India — Avghanistaun not a part of India — Effect of Russian influence - 76 CHAPTER V. Routes into India — Base of action against India — Resources of the Uzbeck States — Facilities of water carriage to the progress of Russian civilization in Central Asia — Accessi- bility of India from the north — Note, Origin of the name " Peshour" — Greco-Bactrian dominion in Avghanistaun — of Parthian — Note, Cave of Prometheus — Persian dominion — Roman antiquities in the Panjab — Scythian dominion in Cabul — Toorkey — Princes of Ghoree — Modern Persian in- roads — Ahmed Shah — Size of the English dominion — ^Im- portance of Bulkh as a military position - - - 80 CHAPTER VI. References from English Authorities on the Foreign Relations of British India — Ava— Nepaul — China — In- Vi CONTENTS. ternal discontent— Nepaul and Kandahar— Cabul— Russia —Heraut'h—Ava—Nepaal— Internal discontent— Russia- Agitation by the native Indian press — Persia and Russia — Domestic politics— Military weakness— Policy of Russia- Threatened dangers of the Indo-British Empire from foreign causes — Domestic dangers— Fear of Russia— Idem — Mys- terious conspiracy in the south — Extract from the debate in the House of Commons on the motion for a vote of thanks to the army of the Indus— Importance to the English of the Cabal conquest 94 CHAPTER VII. Descriptive Character of Dost Mahomed — Birth — Parent- age — Profession — Kills his brother's enemy — Military ac- complishments — Habits — Early display of diplomatic tact — His policy — Rise to political pov^^er — Is a reformed drunkard — Literary pursuits — Becomes Ameer of Cabul — Relations with the Seiks — War with the Seiks — Retires to Cabul — Pursuits — Age — Personal appearance — Personal habits — Dress — Address — A politician — His eloquence — Timidity — Drunken revels — Anecdote of his rise to power — A reformer of morals — Questionable bravery — Despotic — His duplicity — Queen-Mother — His obstinacy and corruption — Licen- tiousness — Of the haram — His wives and children — His po- licy towards the English — His residence — Avghan plainness — His attendants and amusements — Routine of business — Ameer passionate — Secession of his brother — Military habits — Durbar — Ceremonies of Durbar — I>Ieals — Cookery — Servants — Fruits — Pastimes and enjoyments — Evenings — Nights — Chess — Tastes of the Ameer — Fondness for story- telling — Allegory of Avghan avarice and poverty — His plain- ness — Military habits — His brother the Nawaub — His hypo- crisy — His Veneration — Enthusiasm a religious principle — Motives of his political intrigues with foreign states — Seik CONTENTS. Vll diplomacy — Ameer passionate — Secession of his brother — Military habits — Attendants on the march — Daily routine — Smoking — Domestic habit — ^Avghan civility — General drink of the Avghans — Head of the Mahomedan religion — Ameer's religious persuasion — Selfishness the key to his character — — His financial abilities — Fiscal economy of the Orientals — Origin of the Toorks — Their decline — Commercial commu- nity — Ameer's rapacity — His mode of borrowing money — Concluding remarks — Note diplomatic - - - 117 APPENDIX I. Illustration of the British Position at Jillalabad. 173 APPENDIX II. Illustration of a Text from Daniel, &c. — Eastern poli- tics — England's unchristianlike position — Note, Eastern Question — Fulfilment of prophecies — A point of Mahomedan faith — Power of the sooltaun — His origin — Origin of his power— His policy — Causes of the decline of Mahomedan population — Source of revenue — Traditionary prophecies current in the East — Allegory of Dijaul — Object of Christ's advent — Remaining independent Mahomedan powers of Asia — Christ the Soul of God — Volney's opinion of the dis- solution of the Turkish empire — Mahomedans zealous for the advent of Christ — Christians indifferent — Reproof- Origin of the traditionary prophecies — Consequences of the fall of Mahomedanism — Conflicting interests of the European powers in relation to Turkey — Battle of Armageddon — Restoration of the Jewish nation — Universal redemption — Michael the Grand Duke of Russia to restore the Jews — Warning and conclusion 178 APPENDIX III; English Account of the Massacre - - - - 196 ERRATA. Page 1, line 4th from bottom, for " later" read late." " 3, " " for " to whom" read " to those whom." " 5, " 15th from top, dele " and." "12, " 16th " for "the" read "that." "16, " 13th " for " themselves" read " itself." " 16, " 9th from bottom, dele " and." " 21, " 8th " for " guerilla" read " guerrilla." " 25, " 3d from top, for " Bjorstjerna" read "Bjornstjerna." " 26, " 12th from bottom, for " Bjorstjerna" read " Bjornstjerna. "41, " 8th " for " Krauchee" read " Kranchee." " 55, " 11th from top, for " Gujerath" read " Gujerat'h." " 84, " 5th " note, for " Peukola" read " Pekhora." "85, " 2d " note, read"FinjanofGholebund"is. " 89, " 3d from bottom, for " Amir" read " Ameen." c 4 Cor//// PREFACE. The massacre en masse of a British army has awa- kened an intense desire for information concerning the people and the country which have been the cause and scene of that appalHng tragedy, and pro- duced in that feeling a result which the profoundest interests of philanthropy and politics, of religion and government, have heretofore, inauspiciously and unsuccessfully, strove in vain to accomplish. From day to day our opinion is confirmed, and a long train of terrific disasters still mark the malignant track of that destructive meteor in the political history of England, " A Whig Ministry," as the frantic policy of British statesmen of that denomination in India astound the world with the developements of their awful and bloody sequences long subsequent to the origin of their designs. Having been frequently interrogated concerning the probable consequences of the later movements in Avghanistaun, I think I shall not be intrusive by publishing, during this moment of general excite- ment, the ensuing pages, which were written in 1 PREFACE. January last, and are excerptions from my notes on " The British Empire in India." In thus antici- pating myself I am guided by the wish to gratify public curiosity, and in the attempt to be exphcit and comprehensive I trust my labours may not be found deficient in utility. With the submissive resignation of a mind pre- pared to receive the decrees of incontestable destiny I recur to the maxim " The calamities of England are blessings to America" — and here let us deplore with the sanctity of filial piety the afflictions of our race. We breathe the requiem of our affiliated attachments, and say with the French, " Le roi est mort, vive le roi ;" and as the Te Deum and gloria in excelsis mournfully ascend to heaven, let the voice float softly over the ashes of ten thousand dead. Earl Auckland, Baron of Ghuznee,* and ye, innumerable host of subordinate moths whose " fire- * Lord Auckland was created an Earl, and General Sir J. Keane was made Baron of Ghuznee ; the first for planning the policy which, it was said, would confirm the integrity of the British Empire, and preserve India to England, by the conquest of Avghanistaun ; and the other for the glorious campaign with the army of the Indus, that performed feats of valour rivalling the victories of Alexander, and exceeding the celebrity of his most illustrious adventures. Honours of knighthood, ribands, and brevets were showered upon the conquerors of the miserable Avghans with the unsparing liberality of royal munificence, which the breathless solicitude of imminent hazard wrought into existence. PREFACE. new stamp of honour is scarce yet current," called into existence by the extinction of a free and, there- fore, not ignoble nation, " will all the multitudinous seas" wash out the remembrance of your bloody deeds, or would ye, like Pilate, cleanse your hands after relinquishing your victims to the mercy of infuriated enemies. Englishmen, what says the award of conscience ? If the destruction of the British army involved no other consideration than the dreadful annihilation of so many wretched human beings, the soul would revolt from the view, and recoil within itself to avoid the contemplation of inhuman scenes so abhorrent to philanthropy. It is with feelings of profound regret that we mourn the departed ; with unaffected sympa- thy we commiserate the afflicted and affiliated sur- vivors of that fierce retributive visitation of Provi- dence upon a sinning and incorrigible host ; and as we implore the mercy of an offended Deity for the redemption of the doomed^ we draw before our yearning faculties the veil of hopeless beneficence, trusting for all things in the mercy of heaven. We turn now to the world, and with philosophy at our right hand, let us look at the balance which the inexorable " fiat justitia" has placed in the grasp of expediency, and behold the descent of power in the scale to whom hereditary right, and the force of circumstances, and command of posi- tion, all tend to establish and confirm a claim to supremacy. On this subject those who read the PREFACE. following sheets will readily form a just decision. Circumstances are displayed as they exist, and the power that Russia could exert, and the results, of tremendous import to the civilization of the human race, that must follow from tlie exercise of that power, are plain ; but whether Russia has or will participate in the instigation of measures so prolific of benefit to man, the will of Providence alone can direct. The English Tories believe that the Emperor Nicholas, Uke themselves, is and ever has been averse to the extension of dominion in the far East, which the principle of self-defence has heretofore forced upon these powers. " Whatever may have been the policy of Russian diplomacy," say they, '' since the reign of Peter the Great, experience proves that the Emperor Nicholas not only avoids all cause of jealousy to England, but is even indif- ferent to the affairs of Central Asia." The British in India are in the midst of danger without the interference of Russia. " God is great," but I cannot distinctly comprehend how the Eng- lish, should they be forcibly dislodged, can either relinquish their hold on Avghanistaun with safety to their empire in the East, or recover their late posi- tion without incurring an expense of treasure and waste of blood which even the colossal resources of her government could not sustain. Their own experience in the American revolutionary war ; that of the French in Switzerland ; the Russians in PREFACE. Circassia, and themselves again in Cabul, proves the utter folly of attempting to hold in subjection a hos- tile population. To conquer a dominion by control- ling the political parties of a state is a feasible policy, or to reform by gradual means without annihilating the institutions of a subjugated country may be the effect of time and perseverance, but to subdue and crush the masses of a nation by mihtary force, when all are unanimous in the determination to be free, is to attempt the imprisonment of a whole people : all such projects must be temporary and transient, and terminate in a catastrophe that force has ever to dread from the vigorous, ardent, concentrated vengeance of a nation outraged, oppressed, and in- sulted, and desperate with the blind fury of a deter- mined and unanimous will. Many are surprised at the apparent ease with which the English took possession of Cabul. This seeming phenomenon may be readily explained. The government of Cabul under Dost Mahomed was of an oligarchical form ; he ruled as the para- mount of many chiefs. When the British invaded Cabul, they were nominally led by Shah Shujah Ul Moolk, the representative of the ancient regime, who was to the Avghans what Louis XVIII. was to the French, but more popular than the Bourbon : he was surrounded by English officers, and sustained by a British army, who preceded all their move- ments by the alluring fascination of gold. Awaken- ing the cupidity of the Cabul chiefs, they advanced PREFACE. to take possession, as resistance dissolved before the magic charm of Plutus, and each chief was literally purchased by coin and profuse promises to abandon the interests and fellowship of the ameer, and in- duced to embrace the service of the king. Nay, in their audacity they offered to purchase Dost Ma- homed himself, by tending that prince a bribe to relinquish his sovereignty, and enter a prison pre- pared for himself and his adherents in the uncon- genial climate of Hindostan !* The merits and de- merits of the policy which suggested the invasion of Cabul, the march of the army, and their general mismanagement whilst there, have been much dis- cussed. Their policy was opposed by the Duke of Wellington and the Tories, but this party, labouring under the curse of Whig measures, has been obliged to sustain the honour of the country and integrity of the empire, to carry out the mistaken and vicious views of their predecessors. They believe the mo- tives of the Whig ministry were erroneous ; that the pretext to remove the pestilence of Russian councils and intrigues from the frontier of India was founded in error, and that the object of the conquest, to con- * The English proposed to the Ameer that he should accept a pension of £10,000 per annum, and retire into Hindostan. The prince, disdaining the ignominy of self-degradation, preferred exile, and he fled to Tartary. Subsequently he fought two unsuccessful battles with the English, and ultimately rendered himself a prisoner to the enemies of his dynasty. He was sent into India, and, I be- lieve, allowed ^£20,000 per annum. PREFACE. vert the country of an independent nation into a line of frontier defence, by occupying their strongholds as garrisons, and converting a whole nation into mere camp followers, was impossible and unneces- sary ; but now that the Indian government has in- volved itself in the responsibility of maintaining a paramount position in Cabul, to sustain her supre- macy in India must continue firm in her designs, or relinquish the principle of her political existence in Asia. Great was the importance attached to the successful result of the invasion of Avghanistaun. An army of twenty thousand fighting men, accom- panied by sixty thousand camp followers, thirty-five thousand camels, besides innumerable pack-horses and wheeled carriages for the transport of artillery, baggage, and commissariat stores, was concentra- ted in Scind, and leaving Sukkur Buckker as their base of action, penetrated with great waste of life and property, and expense of treasure, through the sterile, inhospitable, and desert wastes of Beloochis- taun, debouching from the Bolan pass upon the plain of Quetta. The country consists of mountains divided by small unproductive valleys, with barely vegetation sufficient to sustain the pastoral popula- tion, which is sparse and savage. The quantity of water is only capable of sustaining small bodies of men and animals, and the army was necessarily divided into details to pass through a country where large masses must have perished from thirst. The camp followers were in a great measure unpro- 8 PREFACE. tected, and subjected to the depredations of a hos- tile population : they were slaughtered in numbers ; the baggage of the army was plundered by the pre- datory natives ; their cavalry was exhausted from famine ; their artillery horses, unfit to drag the guns, were led by the men ; and they arrived at Quetta in a state of destitution little different from disorganiza- tion. Here a council of war was held, and the expediency of returning positively debated ! The desertion of an Avghan chief* from the interests of the Kandhar Sirdars filled those leaders with the terror of domestic treason ; panic fears pervaded themselves and their adherents, prompting them to sudden flight, and they became refugees at the court of T'heran. The British army advanced ; Kandhar fell ; Ghiznee followed ; and the quiet occupation of Cabul ended an uncontested though expensive cam- paign, the operations of which originated causes of expenditure, against which the Duke of Wellington had prophetically forewarned his countrymen. The fourth year is passing since the commence- ment of these military demonstrations : unheard-of obstacles have been subdued by dint of much human suffering ; a king has been dethroned, and another restored ; a kingdom lost, and won, and lost again. The Avghan people have been kept in commotion by continual domestic strife and civil wars ; trea- * Hadji Khan Kaker, created Nusseer ul Dowlah by the Shah — in reward of this treasonable desertion of the Kandhar chiefs. PKEFACE. sures exhausted ; torrents of blood shed, and the whole affair terminated by the naassacre of the in- vaders, whose numbers were said to be ten thousand souls. Thus the expedition has signally failed, and in that failure we behold the retributive justice of an avenging Deity ; for those believe not in God who perform the deeds which characterize the misrule of England in the East ; and they have received the punishment of Sennacherib for their infidelity, in the necessity of a just and merciful Deity, when English arrogance inconsistently proposed to supersede the order of Nature or the Divine Will, by enforcing the slavery of nations in the East, whilst engaged in the abolition of individual negro slavery in the West. Thus is England condemned by her own laws; and it is written, " out of the words of thy mouth shalt thou be judged." The government of the Avghans by their own institutions would have been an experiment suffi- ciently facile, and a conquest, the achievement of which might have been effected with the pretext and the show of right. But no condition of submis- sion short of absolute servility, and the abolition of their national identity, could satisfy the English in their projected conquest of Avghanistaun. They accordingly attacked the system of government, which has been the cherished form of society amongst the people from the earliest period of their political existence. The population is divided into numerous tribes independent of each other, every 10 PEEFACE. one separately governed by a chief selected from the oldest family in the community, though not always the oldest member of that family: the power is held during good behaviour, and in case of a vacany by death, an election is made of the heir of the late chief, or should he decline, a brother or near relation is elevated. The chief is to be viewed as an executive officer, and adminsters the laws of the tribe, which are the result of usage arising from expediency strictly in consonance with the cus- toms of the people. He can levy no revenue; there are in fact no expenses of government. In a tribe each head of a family is a patriarch ruling in the undisturbed possession of his domestic hearth, bound by the common interest to sustain the peace- able and safe enjoyment of life and property of his community, and himself as an integral part thereof. The attachment of the people is to the community, and not to the chief, who is liable to be removed by a council of the tribe for any flagrant misconduct. The chief represents the tribe in their foreign rela- tions, calls out and commands the militia, who main- tain themselves, and administers the judicial system of his tribe. If the English had conciliated the heads of tribes, arranged them round the king, as sustainers of the government, which privilege they had a right to expect, they would have become wilhng hostages for the good conduct of their tribes. But the king, "who can do no wrong," drove these representatives of the people away PREFACE. 11 from his court, seized and imprisoned many who presented themselves for employment and honours, telling them plainly his bayonets were preferable to their swords; deputed the offices of stale to a swarm of hungry expectants, who attended him during his thirty years' exile, and filled up the appointments of revenue officers and governors of districts with household slaves and military re- tainers. These proceedings being sustained by the English gave rise to the prevalence of profound but subdued disgust, which lately displayed its effects in the sanguinary ^?zaZe of the invaders. The Eng- lish, who know well the value of gold, could have controlled the movements and policy of the Avghans by fiscal diplomacy, without incurring the odium of invading and subjugating an unoffending and dis- tant free people, whom to subdue to European forms of civilization was impossible. They are but the " spirits of the waste" who inhabit the wild and sterile deserts of the Caucasian mountains. Their indomitable love of independence is characteristic and incorrigible. They are now what they ap- peared to be under the name of Bactrians in the muster-roll of nations as given by Herodotus in the expedition of Xerxes into Greece, the fiercest of the savage nations of Scythia. Kings have risen amongst the Avghans, and conquered India, but in retaining their conquests have relinquished their native country; they have been transiently subdued. 12 PREFACE. but never enslaved or permanently conquered and held in subjugation by a foreign power. The Greeks when they ruled Bactria, did so by a race of hereditary princes born in the country, who ceased to be subject to the Greeks in Europe. The experience of history, derived from the period of Alexander, from the legends of the Seleucidse or the Greco-Bactrian successors to that dynasty, the invasion of the Parthian Prince Mithridates, or the defeat of Crassus, so similar in many of the incidents to the melancholy fate of " the army of the Indus," and the contemporaneous operations of Russia in the same range, — Cabul being on the eastern and Circassia the western extremity, — all go to prove the unconquerable nature of these semi-civil- ized communities inhabiting the vast range of moun- tains ; and Lord Auckland, in place of being made an earl and receiving the thanks of Parliament and the Queen, should have been impeached, degraded, and despoiled of his hereditary honours. I have appended a map of Cabul and the vicinity, by which the intricate nature of the country may be perceived by inspection. Sir William McNagh- ten was a self-conceited gentleman, who marched into Avghanistaun with the air of Bombastes Fu- rioso, advocating to the governor-general a system of policy which has wrought the reward that cruelty, false faith, and criminal duplicity will ever receive. A nation whose principle of existence PREFACE. 13 lies in the disunion and separate interests of its constituent tribes, became united by common op- pression into one unanimous community, goaded to madness by the systematic and consecutive tyranny of their invaders. The populace were infuriated by a sanguinary and unjustifiable act, and in modern warfare, a measure of unheard-of barbarity, on the part of McNaghten. English papers of March 5th, state, " He requested the king to admit a mortar- battery into Balla Hissar, to shell the townT to re- venge the murder of Burnes, whose death was per- petrated by a body of religious fanatics, and not, as might be supposed from the bloody infliction of shelling a densely peopled city, by an insurrection of the inhabitants en masse. The natives of the city of Cabul were the friends of the English ; they had luxuriated several years on the fatness of English munificence, in the midst of an improvident soldiery, — wherefore was de- struction rained upon them ? If a public func- tionary had fallen in a popular commotion there, the recent example of the Emperor Nicholas in the case of Greybeadoflf, his ambassador at the court of T'heran, who was murdered with all his staff in a popular tumult, might have suggested to Sir WiiUam the line of expediency; but those who disdain heaven, are vainly taught by the experience of man ; and quick was the retribution of Providence for that black unnecessary deed of blood. When 14 PREFACE. the mortar-battery opened on the city, and the con- fiding unoffending inhabitants, who had always been taught to repose on English justice, faith, and mercy, saw the mangled limbs of their wives, and children, and suckling infants, strewed about their domestic hearths, with a desperate and simultaneous impulse, they rushed on the commissariat godawns,* and another moment saw the British army in the grasp of an insulted and unrelenting foe. The headless trunk of their chief now lay weltering in its gory death — for McNaghten was murdered in a forced interview with the Avghans, — and they looked around in vain for the prospect of retreat. Their route for ninety miles lay through a mass of mountains, inaccessible at all seasons except by narrow defiles, in some places mere ravines or chasms in the immense alpine masses, often tower- ing two thousand feet above the plain, from whose mural sides and elevated heights rocks and stones might be securely rolled down on the fugitives. I Now all nature reposed in her cold interminable ^ sheet of snow. The inclemencies of winter, which always completely incapacitates the Indian soldier, were in their full prevalence in a climate where the earth is usually frozen hard as steel nearly four months of the year. They gazed upon the vast expanse before them ; the mountains around them, * Storehouses. PREFACE. 15 and all the country covered with snow, presented the dread result of a hopeless retreat ; despair froze up the current of the blood as it curdled round the fainting heart ; death stared them in the face with the option of starvation, of perishing through cold, or of dying with arms in their hands. Strange that a British army should not have chosen the latter alternative ! If there ever was a doubt of the utter worthlessness of the Anglo-Indian army, on occa- sions of great emergency, and extreme peril, let this example suffice to set the question for ever at rest ; for the English prints expressly state, as the cause of the massacre, that the Indian troops becom- ing disorganized, deserted their officers, disbanded and dispersed, some to safety and dishonour secured by treason, but many to death from the hands of an unmerciful enemy, or the still more merciless inclemency of climate. When the commissariat godawns were seized, the army of fighting men, which was just large enough to garrison the citadel called Balla Hissar, should have marched into that stronghold, which is entirely inaccessible to any mode of warfare of which the natives could avail themselves. They should have removed the popu- lation inhabiting the fortress, and they could have protected with their arms the inhabitants of the city, as it lies immediately under cover of the Balla Hissar, and they could have kept open a communi- cation with the country through the citizens. There 1 6 PREFACE. are several small forts and strongholds in various parts of the city ; every large house has a strong portal and sort of bastion tenable against a siege if the assailants should be unprovided with artillery ; each resident has a rifle, always ready for use, and the city of Cabul has, in fifteen minutes after the sounding of an alarm, been known to show upon the terraces of the houses, 10,000 armed men, fiercely bristUng with the artillery of grim-visaged war. The city of Cabul has frequently rebelled against the king or its chief, during the civil wars of the ancient regime, and without extraneous preparation, readily sustained themselves in a state of insurrection for thirty or forty days consecu- tively. During the winter, the citizens of Cabul have always six months' store of flour or wheat laid up in granary. The army might have been, by proper management, liberally sustained until spring; the English could have intrigued with the leaders of the opposing hordes, created conflicting interests amongst them, and formed a party by conciliation and diplomatic efforts, and dissolved a confederacy that threatened instant destruction ; but the political affairs of the English had again fallen into the hands of still less competent agents : a young lieutenant of the Bombay Artillery, who is re- markable for obstinacy arid stupidity, and an old invalid of high character and imbecile mind. All these facts may be easily proven, and the hands PREFACE. 17 that signed the treaty by which a British army of 10,000 men has been betrayed to ignominious death, justly deserve the award of treason. >.,^ Thirty years have passed since the civil wars of Avghanistaun terminated for a brief period in the expulsion of the ancient regime. These wars were fomented, first by the pretenders to the throne spring- ing from the common ancestor, Timur Shah, the progenitor and king who preceded the present in- cumbent. Shah Shujah. Causes of domestic conflict were kept in continual operation by the leaders of the Barikzye tribe, whose chief had been decapi- tated by order of Shah Zeman, the brother of Shah Shujah. The murder was avenged by the son of this victim of an evil policy, and this son, the Vizier Futty Khan, was the eldest of twenty-one brothers, amongst whom the Ex- Ameer Dost Mahomed is to be numbered. The worse than savage murder of Futty Khan by Kameran Mirza, son of Shah Mahmood, a successful opponent and half-brother of Zeman, whom he blinded, and Shujah, renewed the blood-feud betwixt the Suddoozye, or king's tribe, and the Barikzye, or tribe of the Ex-Ameer. The latter thoroughly and completely prevailed, under the direction of Mahomed Azeem Khan, the full brother and successor of Vizier Futty Khan ; he was succeeded by his son Hubeeb Ullah Khan, who governed an insubordinate multitude, distracted with the vices of their princes, until a long night of 2 18 PREFACE. anarchy was dispelled by the advent of Dost Ma- homed, who was called by an almost unanimous voice of acclamation to assume the reins of power, which the feudal lords of Cabul were ready to strike from the rude grasp of a depraved and monstrous voluptuary, a young man, his nephew, eighteen years of age, the slave of every evil passion. Dost Ma- homed attained the sovereignty of Cabul in 1824, and was hailed by the feudal chiefs as head of an ohgarchy. This form of government continued, through the troubled movements of a restless people, with whom the prospect of peace is ever the pretext of tumult and strife, until 1839. This community of scorpions was ruled by Dost Mahomed with results that confirmed his character for diplomatic tact. With the means of attaining those results the politician has naught to do. There can be no doubt Christian morals and philanthropy would have been horrified at the violence, cruelty, and savage bar- barity of a prince, whose title to supreme power was sanctioned by his abilities in the administration of a remedy or prophylactic measure against all the moral and political depravity of a community upon which Rhadamanthus would have gazed with fatu- ous and timorous dread ! The strongest proof of Dost Mahomed's firmness, decision, pertinacity, and finesse, is to be seen in the fact of his having instantly relinquished the pursuits of an habitual drunkard on attaining sovereign power, together with the simul- PREFACE. 19 taneous and sincere repetition of his example by all his companions in Ucenliousness and arms. In the winter of 1837-38, an individual arrived in Cabul from the camp of Mahomed Shah, who was engaged in the siege of Heraut'h. He repre- sented himself as a Russian courier, who came, it is said, with a complimentary letter from the Em- peror of Russia, addressed to Dost Mahomed. The chiefs of Kandhar (the Ameer's brothers), had already acceded to a Persian alliance, and the Ameer, apprehensive of being superseded in the patronage of the Persian Shah or the Russians, commenced hedging between the three agents then at Cabul, representing Persia, Russia, and England. To the English he held out two stipulations, which he made the sine qua non of a treaty offensive and defensive, and the estabhshment of a garrison of British troops in the citadel of Cabul. viz. : a pay- ment of twenty lacs of rupees, (two hundred thou- sand pounds,) and that Runjeet'h Singh should be obliged to relinquish his pretensions to the natural territories of Avghanistaun within or west of the Indus. The utter and deplorable incapacity of the English agent originated a line of bewildering policy, commenced in the feebleness of a narrow mind, and finished with a deluge of misery and blood. Such indeed was the expedition to Moscow, of which this is a repetition on a small scale ; though the conse- quences may be more important to the social con- 20 PREFACE. dition of man than the great political convulsion alluded to. "^^ The tenure of British India, and consequently the integrity of the British empire, is at this moment sustained by a single hair, and that so tensely drawn that the slighest adverse movement will certainly snap asunder the retaining power. The thousand native princes of India are regarding with intense anxiety and ardent hopes the movements of the British army before the Khyber pass, and the fate of General Sale at Djillalabad. Every able-bodied man, whose numbers are not less than five millions^ covetous and exasperated enemies, is standing with " the foot in the stirrup and hand on the spear," gloating on the hope of plunder which the traditions of old age have placed in fascinating visions before them. The sentinels are in the watch-towers and their runners are in the way, — and the earliest promulgation of the last reverses of the British in Avghanistaun will signalize the destruction of every Englishman throughout the whole of India. If the Avghans slaughter the remnant of British troops under General Sale at Djillalabad, and defeat the British army in its projected attempt to force the Khyber defile, the British power in India expires instantly, without a doubt, as it will without a strug- gle — except the death-throes of their officers, as the native army strangle them in their beds. The In- dians can more readily perform than the Avghans PREFACE. 21 could conceive. Simultaneous movement, whether the effect of design or fortuitous occurrence, or the consequence of circumstance, will eventuate in the same conclusion. So far in this massacre of the British army nothing has been effected to disturb the Anglo-Indian government. But the clouds that have gathered in the Indian Caucasus, and scathed v^^ith their lightning the British army, have not ceased to thunder on the invading host. Should they rain de- struction on the beleaguered forces at Djillalabad, an electric shock will rapidly pass through the chain of connexion that unites the Indo-British empire through- out, and important consequences must ensue beyond the control of England, which will seriously derange the supremacy of that race in India. The Avghans can submit to be defeated daily during the next six months ; news will reach us of the repeated decisive victories of the British forces; but we, who are acquainted with the value of an English bulletin, know that the repetition of a decisive battle implies the continual necessity for defensive operations — and the Avghans will conduct a guerilla warfare, which exhausts by the pertinacity of incessant as- sault. The English admit that their position cannot be maintained against artillery. Should Djillalabad be a defensible position against native aggression, which certainly is not the case, even in English hands, where the disparity of the antagonists is measured by thousands against hundreds in favour 22 PREFACE. of the assailants, a deficiency of provisions will oblige these brave men to yield, not to their ene- mies, but to the dismal alternative of — death. Sir Robert Sale and the English troops under his com- mand, when no other choice remains but the stipu- lation of death or dishonour will unhesitatingly prefer the grave of honour in place of honour's grave. I incHne to the belief that circumstances will again fight for the Avghans and destroy the remnant at Djillalabad, in which case the garrisons of Ghuznee and Kandhar must follow in the same train of events that involves the safety of their com- rades. The English will endeavour to avail themselves of Shujah ul Moolk's influence to regain their posi- tion. They say, with singular naivete, " the king refused to accompany us in our retreat, and was immediately able to surround himself with three thousand followers in the Balla Hissar." The king never desired any greater favour of the English than a loan of money, with which he proposed to restore himself in his own way, by sustaining a party until he could ascend the throne. He is now upon the throne surrounded by a strong party, and his first wish is to rid himself of English tutelage. He will probably consummate his purpose ; and the English, when they trust to Shujah, repose upon a broken reed, which will transpierce the hand of confiding faith. PREFACE. 23 Whilst I write, (May 7th,) the last accounts from England say, " On the authority of a Berlin cor- respondent, upon whose information, derived through letters from Moscow, great reliance is placed, the Times states, that the Shah of Persia has marched against Herat'h at the head of 60,000 men, and that Russia has furnished a subsidy of two million rubles in order to enable the Shah to make the movement." If this statement is founded on fact, the fatal spell begins to work. Note. — In referring to English policy, I trust my English friends will distinctly draw the line of separation betwixt the system that elicits restrictions, and the country at large, and allow me the privilege of admiring those whose friendship I claim, with- out ranking me amongst the enemies of their household gods whom we mutually adore. INDIA AND AVGHANISTAUN. CHAPTER I. EEPLY TO COUNT BJOESTJEENa's WORK ON BRITISH INDIA. I AM not acquainted with any historical subject amongst modern incidents which has been more elaborately or more ably treated by writers of emi- nent pretensions than the British Empire in India, an important phenomenon in the political history of the human race, and justly entitled to a careful investigation. The patient and persevering applica- tion necessary to eliminate from an extensive and promiscuous mass the atoms of a fair synopsis, de- serves our warm approbation ; and the individual who devotes himself to the task with the motive of communicating information of a nature so full of interest as the general advancement of knowledge involved and displayed in the events of history, is entitled to, and shall receive, our grateful acknow- ledgements for the admirable design ; but the errors of a work, whether accidental or premeditated, can- not be redeemed by the merit of the subject; and we 26 INDIA AND are particular in referring to the blunders of the treatise under review, because an invincible name does more to substantiate error than a controverted attempt to confirm a false position; the effort pro- ducing a conflict which must result in the predomi- nance of truth ; whilst the silent and unimpeached influence of a name imperceptibly impresses its force upon a plastic receptacle, and insensibly cor- roborates the grossest mistakes. On this subject the most efficient information can be derived in a form sufficiently condensed for the general reader, from Harpers' Family Library, en- titled *' History of British India," in three vols. 16mo. If to this publication is added " History of Persia, from the earliest ages to the present time," by James B. Frazer, Esq., complete in one vol., "with a map and engravings ; and the well arranged and minutely true account of Avghanistaun, by the Hon. Mount Stuart Elphinstone, a synopsis of Indian and Persian history becomes available, in- cluding all that a philosophical inquirer could desire. Amongst the collaborators upon British India one of the latest candidates for public appro- bation is " Lieut. General Count de Bjorstjerna," &c. &c., (of Stockholm,) formerly chief of the staff, and at present Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at the Court of Great Britain. The Count is an admirer of the English government, and his work, for that essential cause, is, in the opinion of our great Colossus of the world, "judicious and luminous, and will afford more complete informa- tion on the British Empire in the East than any work of the same extent in our own language." (Preface of the English translator.) The Count has laboriously referred to all accredited authorities AVGHANISTAUN. 27 on India, and enumerates more than one hundred published sources, besides a host of unpublished manuscripts, many of them voluminous deposits in the archives of the East India Company, from which his knowledge has been culled, and his opi- nions made up or confirmed. He presents himself to the public as an individual perfectly acquainted with his subject, and consequently soliciting and deserving the attention of his auditors, and doubt- less, in default of more correct knowledge, he may bear away the compliment of merit which his pre- tensions in no kind justify us in awarding. The Count is more than unfortunate in almost every opinion he has expressed. He is indeed un- wise, for he compromises by his misstatements, in the fullest latitude, the gratuitous approbation of his English friends. The value of the Count's opinions and accuracy may be readily estimated at the onset by recurring to his puerile inferences drawn from facts which, in his imagination, are worthy of remark. He directs our attention to a won- derful coincidence, a discovery unthought of here- tofore, and refers to the occurrence with a matter- of-course sort of self-complacency of an edifying caste. He says, p. 10 of " The British Empire in India" — "During his residence in India (1324-53) Batuta gained the favour of Mahomet, the Em- peror of Delhi, who sent him on an embassy to the Emperor of China. Mahomet was descended from the Sooltauns of Khorassaun, who had conquered India. The whole dynasty of these sooltauns had the surname of Oddin, a circumstance which I consider it right to notice here." By referring to the History of India mentioned above, page 184, we see, " In the year 1316 the crown (of Delhi) was 28 INDIA AND placed on the head of Mubarrick I., one of the Emperor's sons. He was murdered after a reign of three years, and "amid the confusion which fol- lowed (p. 185), Tuglick, a slave, belonging to the warlike border tribe of the Jits, ascended the throne." Tuglick ims succeeded by his son Jonah, who assumed the title of Mahomet'lII. ; but instead of following his father's example, his crimes sur- passed those of his most guilty predecessors, and made him, during a reign of twenty-seven years, the execration of the East. " Mahomet, it appears (p. 186), had at length resolved to adopt a milder system, but death interrupted him before he could realize his intentions, and delivered India from the dreadful scourge of his government in the year 1351." This Mahomet was the son of a slave, and not, as the Count observes, " descended from the Sooltauns of Khorassaun," &c. " The whole dynasty of these sooltauns (those of Khorassaun, who had con- quered India,) had the surname of Oddin." Merely alluding to the culpable and inexpressive looseness of the Count's style, we must meet this assertion with a direct denial. The first person who reigned as a local Mahomedan prince in India, was Kuttub ul Deen. He was of the humblest birth, having been purchased as a slave at Nishapoor in Toorkis^ taun. Mahmood of Choree established Kuttub as his lieutenant in the city of Delhi, on the subversion of the Hindoo dynasty. He was the first of a race of foreign rulers called the Patau dynasty, but his power did not descend in his own family. ' He was succeeded by Altumish, who, like his master, had been a slave. All the kings of what is called " the Patan dynasty," i. e., those who followed Kuttub ul AVGHANISTAUN. 29 Deen, to the period of the Moghul dynasty, established by Baber in 1525, are mentioned in history by their proper appellatives, without a surname. It is pro- bable some who were elevated from a low condition, may have had the surname of Ul Deen, according to the Mahomedan usage. This cognomen would have corresponded with the denomination of those who were called after some attribute of the faith, whilst there are many names which would not admit of the association. Such are Mahomed, Kei Kobad, Kera, (unless this last should be intended for Khire,) GhufFoor, Omar, Mubarrick, Tuglick, Mahomed, et id genus omne. Admitting, for the Count's gratification, that they all took the surname which distinguished Kuttub, by what method of pronunciation, or by what value of letters, can Ul Deen be called Oddin. Ul is the Arabic article the, Deen means religion in the same language, and the word Kuttub signifies pole or axis (of the earth) — Kuttub ul Deen implies, "axis of the faith," i. e.,the faith of Mahomed. The name is derived from the Mahomedan era, and cannot be in any way coinci- dent with the Scandinavian name Oddin. Fancy the surprise of the Hyperborean worthy, could he break the cerements of his tomb at this moment, and find himself saluted by one antiquarian as a Hindoo devotee, whilst another familiarly addressed him as a Mahomedan priest! The Count's great disco- very, of which he had so much to make in reserve, a circumstance which he sagely suggests, *' I con- sider right to mention here," goes for naught. The Count draws other inferences from what he considers coincidences of language, in each of which he still more strongly proves his ignorance of philology and of history, and deficiency in tact, in 30 INDIA AND endeavouring to trace resemblances in sound with- out regard to orthography. In these results we can only lament the incapabihty of his views, and his frivolous pretensions, e. g. : fogdar, governor of a province, and fogdar, a word of the same sig- nification in Sweden. Fogdar is pronounced in the Persian, fodjedar. It comes from fodje {army), and the imperative dar of the Persian infinitive dashten (to have), literally, the possessor of an army ; colloquially, governor of a province. Again, Vedas, name of the sacred books of the Indians, is supposed to resemble Edda, by which name the sacred writings of the Scandinavians are known ; also between Buddha and Oddin. Vedas is pro- nounced Bade, which is not a close resemblance to Edda, and Buddha becomes colloquially But'h, in the oriental dialects of Arabia, Persia, and Hin- dost'han, which in nowise bears any resemblance to Oddin, notwithstanding the Count's remarks, p. 63 — " of these we may mention the resemblance betw^een the names of Buddha and Oddin (espe- cially in the oriental pronunciation)." The foregoing are some of the " positive facts," which, according to the English translator, add an important zest to the Count's work ; they show "the relation between the religious belief of the Hindoos and the w^orship of Oddin," (p. 10, Pref.) To show how little the Count has been understood by his English friends, if indeed he understands himself, let us refer to the remarks which he offers upon this subject, p. 65 et seq. : " Where do we find in the mythology of the Goths any traces of that love of allegory which so remarkably distinguishes the Brahminic doctrine?" &c. "No, the mythology brought by Sigge Fridulfson to Switheod had not AVGHANISTAUN. 31 its origin in India." " The doctrines of Brahma and Buddha are the products of India, originated on the banks of the Ganges, and never reached the shores of the Bahic." To make the worse appear the better cause, the Count even places his honour in an ambiguous and unenviable position. To what motive can we ascribe the relation of the following anecdote, intended as an illustration of the bravery of the Indian army 1 It is one of those unfortunate instances which prove more than the author in- tended or desired. The story is a prominent ex- ception to the ordinary reputation of the Indian army, and shows that a circumscribed operation of an estimable quality is the result of a general defi- ciency. The conquest recorded is utterly false. Page 155: " As one among thousands of examples of bravery which distinguishes the soldier in the Anglo-Hindoo army, we may cite the following : In the year 1804, General Lake besieged the for- tress of Bhurtpore, situated in the central part of India, which was considered impregnable. Holkar, after having lost two battles against General Lake, had thrown himself, with the remains of his Mah- ratta army, into the above-named fortress, and determined to defend it to the last extremity. Four attempts to carry it by storm had been repulsed, the two last executed by the 75th regiment of the English line, which had (like Ney) the surname of les braves des braves. A fifth attack was to be at- tempted. The European troops recoiled, when the 12th regiment of sepoys offered to undertake it, and planted their victorious colours on the high walls of Bhurtpore." Page 113, he says, on a previous occa- sion " Holkar was obliged to throw himself, with the 32 INDIA AND rest of his army, into the strong fortress of Bhurtpore, which was besieged and stormed in vain four times, but on the fifth attempt it was taken by General Lake!" As national glory is a subject on which the English are peculiarly sensitive, we select the relation of the Bhurtpore affaiu^ and the singular bravery recorded by the Count from their own annals : " Hitherto in general the reduction even of the strongest forts had proceeded in a sure and regular course ; the trenches were opened, a storm- ing party was selected, who forced their way in with greater or smaller loss, and were masters of the place. But the defenders of Bhurtpore not only fought with the most daring valour, but called into action means of defence and annoyance which the English had never elsewhere encountered, and for which they were wholly unprepared. They ren- dered the breach impracticable by raising behind it stockades and other bulwarks ; they made the ditch unfordable by damming up the waters; and, during the assault, logs of wood, pots filled with combusti- bles, and burning cotton-bales steeped in oil were thrown down upon the soldiers. In short, the British army were repulsed in four successive attempts, sus- taining in killed and wounded a loss of 3203, greater than had occurred in any two battles during this obstinately disputed campaign. Even their glory was somewhat tarnished. The seventy-sixth, (not the seventy-fifth,) hitherto the bravest of the brave, {brave des braves) and the foremost in every tri- umph, along with the seventy-fifth, (which here merely figures as an ordinary corps, and not the brave des braves^ refused on one occasion to follow their officers after the twelfth Bengal sepoys had planted the colours on the top of the rampart. Being AVGHANISTAUN. S3 bitterly reproached for having thus caused the failure of the assault, they were overpowered with shame, and entreated to be led to a last attack, where they displayed desperate but useless valour ! " It was now necessary to intermit the operations of the siege in oraer to repair the losses sustained, and to bring forward more adequate means of attack. The rajah, however, apprehensive of the final issue, and seeing that his entire downfall must follow the loss of his capital, made very advantageous over- tures, including the payment of twenty lacs of rupees (2,000,000),* as the price of peace; while on the other hand the situation of affairs was such as induced the English general, on the 10th of April, to embrace the conditions, and even to promise, in case of a steady adherence to treaty, the restoration of the fortress of Deeg," (which had been taken a few days before.) Harper's Family Library, History of India, vol. ii. p. 169. I am enabled to add, that British policy induced the government to adhere to the treaty made by Lake in 1804 ; and that to 1825, w^hen Bhurtpore was taken by Lord Combermere, the fortress had been a thorn in the apple of their eye. The natives for twenty years had boasted that the chief tower of their fort was built of the dead bones of their Feringeef enemies, cemented with the mortar of mud and English blood ; that they had conquered the conquerors of India. Their pride and arrogance were inconceivably inflated ; repeated insults had been inflicted on the English and their adherents ; an EngHshman could not pass through the district of Bhurtpore without great personal risk, and British officers on hunting excursions were * £200,000. t Frank, or European. 3 34 INDIA AND beaten and driven from the vicinity by the jealous natives with disgraceful impunity. The impression of its impregnability added audacity to insult, and to remove that conviction from the native mind, and ensure the moral subjugation of India, the con- quest of Bhurtpore became absolutely necessary, and this result v^^as accomplished by Lord Com- bermere, under the administration of Earl Amherst, in 1825. After these preliminary strictures on the Count's " positive facts," I shall proceed to consider the 17th chapter of his book, entitled, "What prospect of stabihty has the British power in India?" The investigation of the British tenure of India is a "delicate affair to the nervous excitability of the Enghsh upon this vital question. Involving as it does reasons forcibly bearing upon the integrity of the British empire, our great Colossus condescends to be grateful for a favourable opinion expressed by a foreigner, though in this instance no neutral. The Count cursorily, and with a tender admission of immunity, runs over the abuses of the English sys- tem, and after an unsuccessful attempt to exonerate his heroes, he philosophically concludes — " These answers to the reproaches which have been made to the British system of government and commerce in India, however plausible they may be, cannot wholly remove the grievances and their causes of fermentation in India, and therefore the British power in that country cannot be considered as properly consolidated," p. 202. He adds immedi- ately, p. 203, " the question now is, whether the elements of stability overbalance the materials for fermentation existing in India. We consider the former to be the case, provided," &c. &c. Here the proviso includes principles of paramount con- AVGHANISTAUN. 35 sideration, and which would effect a great moral revolution, and thorough change, in the political and religious institutions of the Indian population, no less, 1st, than the just and wise government of the country; 2dly, the admission of the Indian people to a share in the government of the country. The second stipulation is utterly opposed to the genius of the people, familiar as they are with the absolute form of government, which has existed amongst them for ages. The principle is incom- prehensible to a community whose records, from the earliest period, enduring through thousands of years, show the devoted veneration of its masses for the patriarchal system. " Inspired," as the Count ob- serves, p. 203, " with stoical and slavish indifference, which promotes obedience, and prevents the break- ing out of insurrections against the existing power, and the belief in the transmigration of souls causes life to be considered as so insignificant a part of their eternal being, that it is not worth while to trouble themselves much about it." Much less, then, would they be likely to value highly a greater share in the government of theirxountry. Again, p. 203 : " It is often said, and I believe with truth, that the power of England over India is a power depending on opinion." Page 206 : " In considering the sta- bility of the government, or the result of a great military enterprise against India, we shall confine ourselves to the military (viz.: the strategetical, topographical, and statistical) part of the question, leaving the 'political as much as possible untouched." This is performing the play of Hamlet without the character of Hamlet. If the government is stabili- tated on opinion or moral force, moral influence will be the proper weapon to oppose the government of opinion, on the accepted principle in war of man 36 INDIA AND to maris and horse to horse opposed. But as the three points upon which the discussion of this mo- mentous question is proposed cannot have the shghtest bearing on the success of " a great miHtary enterprise against India," I reserve my strictures on the Count's somnambulistic garrulity and general views, and on another occasion, by a simple state- ment of facts, I shall present the 'political part of the question, which the count, with much naivete, pro- fesses to have a " wish to avoid." On the subject of accessible roads into India, the Count is equally infeUcitous. Having disposed of all the dangers from foreign invasion by shutting up the routes to India, he directs our attention to the passage across the Hindoo Kush as the road by which a Russian army might most easily penetrate to India. I have no doubt an offensive measure against India might be effected by this route ; it is one of the accessible points, but not the most easy. Where the Count supposes the country to be covered by eternal snow, that is, the district between the Hindoo Kush route and Heraut, " over which there are no roads and where it is impossible for an army to penetrate," there passes a route via Bameean, diverging at Rooey, and debouching upon the plain of the Oxus, via Heibuck on the east, and Derrah i EsofT on the west, the first egressing by Tash- khoorghan (Khoolum), and the last between the cities of Bulkh and Mozar, which are respectively situated about six or seven coss* north from the mountain range. This is the great caravan route, and has been used from the earliest periods. It was by this imprac- ticable route that Alexander marched from Bulkh, * A coss is one mile and three-fourths. AVGHANISTAUN. 37 (the ancient Bactra,)* and whose footsteps were re- traced by successive invaders of India ; of the Par- thians under Mithridates, the Persians of Darius Hystaspes, and of Artaxerxes; of the Samanian, Toork, Moghul, and Persian dynasties. The Count commences at the beginning with a Russian inva- sion, and this is his first principle : " A Russian army intended for an expedition against India, starting from the eastern side of the Caspian Sea, and follow- ing the line of the Oxus, must be collected in Oren- burgh," p. 220. This is true, but the result of the Khiva expedition proves that an attempt to pene- trate through Khwarizm never should have been undertaken, and that a Russian army attempting to reach India to he successful should not start from Orenburgh. He is right in making Bulkh the work- ing point, and in cantoning the Russian troops there. If he selects the route that has been travelled by all the great invaders, depredators, and conquerors who have infested India, he will get there with no less facility than a Russian army could march from Til- sit to Paris, over a macadamized road, and through a country yielding supplies in profusion. I shall not follow the Count every step from Bulkh to Attock. The country is filled up with great moun- tain ranges, the routes are through narrow defiles, ravines, and upland valleys, and over passes rising sometimes to the gelid altitudes of perennial snow. They are difficult from the sterility of the soil, sparsely cultivated, the predatory habits of the people, whose pursuits are pastoral, their numbers few, and dispersed over an extensive surface. The Indian Caucasus, or that part which lies between Bulkh and Cabul, is three hundred miles broad, and the * The city is called Bactra, and the province Bactria, by Q. Curtius. 38 INDIA AND highest pass is 12,500 feet above the sea. The roads are free from snow from May to October inclusive, except that by the Hindoo Kush, which is open from July to September inclusive. The route by Ba- meean is not subject to avalanches near the high- way, as the Count infers, neither has a caravan ever been lost from any other cause than the pre- datory practices of the natives. The natural ob- stacles are by no means insuperable, for I have crossed the Paropamisus by this route commanding a division of the Cabul army, accompanied with a train of artillery, consisting of four six-pounders and two battering guns. They were dragged across the mountains on their carriages, and the whole distance was performed without the necessity of striking a pioneering instrument into the ground ! I avoid following the Count from Bulkh to Attock, because a Russian army would never find the route contested ; and physical difficulties, should they not be insurmountable obstacles, may be subdued by perseverance and enterprise. Should a Russian army ever take up a position at Bulkh, there will be an end to the empire of opinion in India ; and there is not a stane or a stick in all the country which would not become a deadly weapon in the hands of outraged millions, to drive out the pitiful handful of European oppressors, amounting to some thirty thousand Englishmen, in a community which by the Counfs showing is 200,000,000 (two hundred million) souls.* It is frivolous to dwell on the geo- * The estimated population of India being represented by Bjornstjerna at 200,000,000 is an error of 60,000,000 ; it probably proceeds from his ignorance of the geographical divisions of the Mogul Empire, within the boundaries of which, in its utmost ex- tent, the amount of 200,000,000 has been stated. We can only account for this vast discrepancy by supposing that some dis- tricts have been twice computed, and thus swelled the gross AVGHANISTAUN. 39 graphical difficulties and topographical impediments when they are not insurmountable obstacles in them- estimate beyond the truth. The following statement is derived from parliamentary reports, which must be admitted final and unerring in a matter of statistics, when unequivocally represented in that light, viz., in the year 1832 : Square miles. Inhabitants. Presidency of Bengal .... 220,312 . . . 69,710,071 Doubtful districts . . . . 85,700 Madras 141, 923 J . . . 13,508,525 Bombay 59,438| . . . 6,251,546 Doubtful districts 5,550 512,9231 89,470,152 The population of the doubtful districts, being situated on the Nurbudda in Berar and Concan, is probably not large ; so that the whole will not much exceed 90,000,000. The territory of the allied or protected, i. e., the subject states, is estimated at 614,610 square miles. Their population, however, is not supposed nearly equal to that of the territories under the immediate government of the Company. Mr. Hamilton, in the second edition of his Gazetteer, estimates it as follow, viz. : The Nizam 10,000,000 The Nagpore Rajah 3,000,000 TheKingofOude 3,000,000 TheGuickwar 2,000,000 The Sattarah Rajah 1,500,000 The Mysore Rajah 3,000,000 Travancore and Cochin 1,000,000 Kotah Boondee of B'hopaul 1,500,000 Rajpootanah and other petty states 5,000 000 40,000,000 The same gentleman makes the following conjecture as to the states that were independent in 1832, viz. : Scindea 4,000,000 Lahore, Rajah Runjith Singh 3,000,000 Sinde 1,000,000 Nepaul 2,000,000 Cashmere and other districts belonging to the King ofCabul 1,000,000 11,000,000 This would give a population of 140,000,000 souls for the whole of India. — History of Jndia^ vol. ii. p. 291. 40 INDIA AND selves, but derive their inriportance from political causes. They may serve for positions of defence to a hostile population against an invading force, but become the strongholds of friendly power when an advancing army can claim or command the sym- pathies of the people through whose territories they are to pass. Diplomacy is the weapon which Russia has to wield against the Indo-British em- pire, and by the process of diplomacy I shall show by and by that the British power in India — that empire of opinion which has so astonished the world by its unique existence, — may be made to disappear, and " like the baseless fabric of a vision, leave not a wreck behind." Page 223 : "The road from Peshour to Atlock^ goes through a narrow pass, formed by the Cabul river on one side and a high range of mountains on the other." It is difficult to imagine how the topography of a district should be so absolutely misrepresented as the Count's asser- tion here displays the face of the country from Pe- shour to Attock. The plain of Peshour is bounded on the north by the Cabul river, and on the south by a semicircular range of mountains in the district of Khuttuck. This alpine range commences at the Attock, and sweeps towards the S. and S. E. until they plunge into the Afreedee mountains of the Soo- lemanee range, behind or west of Peshour. The breadth of the plain included between the Cabul river and the southern boundary at its widest part, * Elphinstone says, "On the march of the 18th, which reached to the Indus, the hills came close to the river of Cabul, so that we were obliged to cross thera. They belong to the same range which we passed near Cohaut," &c. «fec. They belong to the Khuttuck range, i. e., they are a lateral spur of hills springing from those mountains. AVGHANISTAUN. 41 is thirty-five miles across, and nowhere do these mountains approach the Cabul river so as to form a defile. From Peshour to Attock the distance is an open plain, cut up into ravines as you approach the Attock; and still nearer this river there is a difficult pass over a spur of the Khuttuck range near the Cabul river, but it does not command the access to the At- tock, except by this one road. The river Indus is accessible by several proximate routes. " There are political hindrances, which are of more consequence than the former" (geographical and physical). On this, to the Count, forbidden subject, viz., the political reasons aflfecting the stability of the Indian Empire (see p. 206), there seems to be no objection to avail himself if the argument makes against the enemies of England, which the Count supposes is the case here. But, as usual, he is again wrong when he ventures on an opinion, no less than he is false in the selection of his facts. He says, p. 223. et seq., "A military expedition from Russia to India pre- supposes that all the countries between them should first be subdued." Well, they have been subdued, but not by Russia. England herself has removed that obstacle to the advance of a Russian army by extending her frontier into Avghanistaun, and draw- ing a line of defence from the Indian Ocean at Ku- rauchee to Heraut, and thence through the Indian Caucasus east to Attock, so that there is no longer any neutral ground remaining between these two antagonist powers. And is the Count so utterly ignorant of Russian influence in Persia as not to know that the interests of these two governments are intimately blended together, and identified with each other ? That the 42 INDIA AND Shah of Persia is maintained upon his throne by the Russian power, in defiance of innumerable preten- ders, claimants whose pretensions are by no means insignificant; and should their rights be left to the arbitrament of civil war, independent of foreign in- fluence, would expeditiously dismember the Persian kingdom ? That the monarch of Persia is swayed by the policy of Russia, and could at any moment conduct a Russian army from its point of concen- tration at Asterabad via Meshud and Meimunnah to Bulkh ? It would not be more difficult to procure by treaty with the paramount lord of the Uzbeck states, the Ameer of Bocharah, a free passage and feudal service through his dominions, if necessary, to join issue with the proximate and mutual enemy at Cabul ; the more especially as that enemy is a Christian power whose late conquests in Avghanis- taun have brought to the threshold of Tatary the enterprising and heretofore invincible conquerors of the Moghul Empire. So long as England re- mained behind the Sutledge, and her views of ag- grandizement were not disclosed by the late mighty stride into Central Asia, which brought within the circumference of her power the four independent principalities of Beloochistaun, Avghanistaun, Pan- jab, and Scind ; the Uzbecks of Central Asia* might have justified a jealousy of the Russians, and also of the English, thinking themselves capable of main- taining their neutrahty whilst the competitors for * The Uzbecks of Central Asia, who constitute the only remain- ing independent Mahomedan communities, are : Province of Bulkh, Kundooz, Bocharah, Kokand, and Khiva the capital of Orgung-e, or Khwarizm. These countries are bounded on the north by Oren- burgh, east by Yarkand, west by the Caspian Sea, and south by the chain of the Indian Caucasus, AVGHANISTAUN. 43 territory in Asia were equidistant, but the unex- pected advent of a British army, the sudden con- quest of Avghanistaun, and dreaded proximity of the English in the permanent occupation of Cabul, impresses a sense of terror and profound awe upon the only remaining independent Mahomedan com- munities of Asia, and drives those governments lying between Cabul and Orenburgh to solicit the ap- proach of Russia as the sole antagonist capable of withstanding the tide of British conquests, which threatened, by the subjugation of Avghanistaun, to involve within the folds of her power the province of Bulkh, the principahty of Kundooz, the Khanauts of Bocharah and Kokand, and the province of Khwarizm, (or Orgunge, of which Khiva is the capital.) These states are connected with the Rus- sian empire, geographically, commercially, and by political identity, so that their interests on one hand, and their necessities and sympathies on the other, bind them to Russia in a manner inimical and hos- tile to the British government. Russia has thoroughly and firmly established a respect for her policy in Persia and the Tatar nations of Central Asia, in- cluding the Uzbe'is^ks of Toorkistaun, but not by con- quest. Treaties offensive and defensive, and covet- ed guarantees of political supremacy to reigning powers, have been the means of subjecting expectant princes to the expanding policy of Russia, whilst the sword and bayonet have aggrandized by permanent occupation their less fastidious antagonists. The Russians are viewed by the Mahomedans of Asia as a power whose civilization flows through the mild and fertilizing streams of commercial enter- prise; whilst the English are viewed as the avari- cious and bloody votaries of devastating invasions 44 INDIA AND who recklessly sacrifice all that oppose their own love of independence as a bar to their ambitions pro- jects. The Russians, far from being obliged to con- quer every petty state between Orenburgh and At- tock, would, upon the mere suggestion of an Indian invasion, have the hordes of Central Asia clustered under her patronage, nations of feudatories, propel- ling in her train their armed hosts, dense clouds of cavalry thundering at her heels over the waste and unprotected plains of "the Indian paradise, where the stones are gold and jewels, and the dust of the earth ambergris and musk." The prospect of plunder to the feudal masses of India and Central Asia, the chances of aggrandizement held out to native princes from the breaking up of an immense empire, the spoil of cities and of usurers, whose coffers are annually replenished with six-tenths the gross revenue of India,* were strong inducements, if incitement were necessary, to the hungry maw of native cupidity, re- strained in tiresome monotony and endurance of a grinding and exclusive system of European rights, engrafted by the English upon the free, the reckless, the untrammelled, though absolute legitimacy, of the feudal order of society as it exists in Asia. Civi- lized man is the creature of habit ; the semi-barba- rian is more the child of nature : both are modified by education. The education and moral regimen of Asia is purely oriental, whilst that of Europe is no less local and adapted to the demands of European wants. The West and the East are diametrical antipodes, each possessing principles, systems, and morals sui generis and respectively characteristic of * The gross revenue of British India is £21,000,000 sterling annually. AVGHANISTAUN. 45 each. No amalgamation has been effected. As they were during the Crusades they still remain. There is no sympathy between Hindoo, Mahome- dan, and Christian communities; all are at variance, antagonist, hostile, and unrelenting enemies. Masses of population thus disposed will not be refined by promiscuous intercourse. Each one confident in his own philanthropy would confer the beneficence of his pecuHar institutions on the other, and so long as the struggle of their respective systems is confined to moral influence, 'tis easy to foresee the inutility of the result. Christianity is truth, and truth, how- ever sustained, is justified by the means. The sword may establish the truth ; the pretext and the imposi- tions of vice it needs not. These are dimming clouds that obscure the soft rays of mild religion, and pre- sent her to the world like the blessed sun shorn of his beams, a sanguinary emblem of threatening futurity. When the Sun of Christ rose upon the throne of Con- stantino, the sword of state cut off the Pagan gods of infidel Rome. Masses of population, constituting millions of souls, with identical prejudices, feelings, and passions, are operated upon slowly by the imper- ceptible influence of mind, as it becomes developed by the stimulating necessities of observing man. Experience is the great, the practical teacher of mankind, and the founder of progressive civiliza- tion. Education but serves to elucidate the me- dium, and render experience available. The moral instruction of Asia originates in experience, and expands over the surface of society as it is solicited by necessity. Our book-learning of the West, which is the drapery of our civilization, and springs from a previous acquisition of taste for the beaux arts, is unknown and unappreciated by 46 INDIA AND the Asiatics, rudely occupied as they are in hourly, in painful industry, in momentary and anxious solicitude for their daily rations ; the ease, the lei- sure, and the luxury of wealth they know not : these are the privileges and acquirements of the divine and absolute few whose artificial powers of govern- ment enable them to subjugate the minds of men ! Nothing has been done by missionary efforts or government institutions towards implanting the love of knowledge or knowledge of learning among the masses of Asia. The tastes of the Orientals and their necessities are native to themselves and their soil, and different from European ideas ; and all the pre- tended and ostentatious efforts of public institutions, the munificence of private enterprise, the vain show of government designs, politically insincere, and the austere devotion of holy missionaries, are local and circumscribed, confined to occasional and soli- tary cases, or utterly insignificant results ; such as attend the benevolent and pious complacency of European Roman Catholics, who despatch the self- denying disciples of their faith commissioned to im- plant their creed amongst the schismatic millions of America. Except in the chief cities of India, and those more immediately under European control, such as Calcutta, Benares and Delhi, Madras and Bombay, and the military cantonments of the Eng- lish, the native community knows nothing of Euro- pean institutions. The masses of Asia, stupified by ignorance, apathetic from climate and physical im- becility, are at the bottom of the social order. To move them by education a lever would be required which twenty millions of teachers could not do more than render effectual for instant and general utility. " Of the one thousand millions of inhabi- AVGHANISTAUN. 47 tants (says the Count) upon the globe's surface, we have three hundred and eighty millions of Budhists, two hundred millions of Hindoos, one hundred and forty millions of Mahomedans," besides millions of Jews, Guebres, and infidels amongst nominal Chris- tians, all inhabiting Asia — a magnificent and un- bounded field for missionary efforts, at which hope would sicken and the heart fail, were we not -assured that "the Lord shall pour out his spirit upon all flesh, and every living thing shall be taught to know God." To that miracle we should trust for the consecration of our confidence in heaven, whilst we bless and admire the universal and devoted en- thusiasm of those self-denying disciples of Chris- tianity who plunge into the fathomless sea of bar- barism in search of an oasis of Divine love, where the httle grain of faith may be sown for the salva- tion of future generations, — or boldly stalk through the fire of probation, unscathed by the seven times heated furnace of infidelity, as they strive against the ignorance and apathy of man that will not be blessed. It has been observed by historical authorities, " The results produced by missions under the dif- ferent societies in various parts of India, is ex- tremely similar. The natives have every where become secure from the apprehension of any violent attempt to overturn their religious belief and obser- vances. This confidence, instead of being shaken, seems confirmed by the presence and activity of the missionaries; when they see the government at the same time maintaining the strictest neutrality. They have even overcome all fear arising from the inter- course of foreigners with themselves or their fami- lies. They are fond of meeting and entering into 48 INDIA AND argument with them, which fact imph'es contempt of the missionaries' abiUties ; they send their chil- dren to their schools from motives of worldly con- sideration, that they may become quahfied as subordinate clerks in the commercial establishments and government offices, and even allow them to be catechized and instructed in the doctrines of Chris- tianity; though there is a conservative society of the Hindoos in Calcutta, which has a newspaper published under its patronage, who excommunicate from their community every one who is known to countenance innovations upon their ancient esta- blished systems of religion and education, or the ordinary habits and customs ; yet with this, the ex- amples of conversion are so extremely few, that, in anatmial sense, they may be considered as nothing. Omitting all consideration of the manner in which the Hindoo religion is interwoven with the habits of life, with the splendour of its festivals, and the zeal of its votaries, the single institution of Caste opposes a most formidable obstacle, though one which is sensi- bly diminishing through the continued communication of the English, and particularly of the missionaries ; (this remark is at variance with the above mentioned conclusion, that all previous efforts go for nothing.) The circumstance too, that every particular of their creed and worship is in voluminous writings, all believed to be of Divine origin, renders it almost impossible to make any impression. However unable they may be to defend any of their dogmas, the simple remark, at the close of the conference, that * it is in the Shastras or Vedas,' banishes every impression of doubt; they imagine that they can with perfect safety amuse themselves with dispu- tation, and send their children to the schools with a AVGHANISTAUN. 49 view to their improvement or worldly advantage ; nor do they scruple to appear in the character of what is called inquirers, and amuse their instructors with deceptive hopes of their embracing Chris- tianity."* The time was when twelve poor fishermen, desti- tute of moral influence or political power, were deemed by the Founder of our religion, a sufficient complement to preach the gospel to all mankind. One of the ablest and most eloquent writers, but the insidious advocate of infidelity, has laboured with sophistical arguments of well-drawn inference to prove that Christianity owed its progress to natural, and not to miraculous causes. Small and apparently insignificant in the commencement were the efforts which have issued in the mighty results of Christian conversion in the Roman world ; and if natural causes, arising from so simple and unpre- tending an origin, were sufficient to supplant idolatry and establish upon the altars of "the unknown God" a communion of churches, comprising at this day 200,000,000 worshippers, is there not greatly more reason to indulge the hope of regeneration for Asia, although strong in her bulwarks of superstition, and apparently invincible in the possession of institutions venerable from their antiquity, and firm in their connexion with the prejudices of the people whom they concern ? Previous to the conversion of Con- * The Societies in Great Britain for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, are that of the Baptist persuasion, which commenced its eiforts in 1792 ; the London Missionary Society, founded on a great scale, in 1795 ; the Church Missionary Society, instituted in 1800, which began its operations in India in 1812;' and the Scottish Missionary Society, recently established at Bombay. 4 50 INDIA AND stantine, the fathers of the church did little more than fertilize by their zeal the field of their labours. The natural effect of new religions upon antecedent systems of worship, when powerless and unsus- tained by political impulse, and after the bigotry of persecution has become exhausted, is to create a feel- ing of indifference where oppression once prevailed; carelessness begets impartiality; from long threat- ening, unattended by apprehended consequences, the mind relapses into apathy, and the watchfulness of jealousy is eluded. The institutions of a community are never more liable to subversion than when the prospect of innovation is regarded with familiarity; the attempts of the charmer are crowned with success when the object of his desires listens to his voice ; and the very confidence with which the Hindoos are now inspired on the subject of conver- sion, shows they have been brought seriously to contemplate the possibility of change. The mis- sionaries are probably in the way of commencing in Asia the epoch alluded to in the Apocalypse, chap. xiv. 6., " And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, (z. e., a space beyond the Roman world,) having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." The mis- sionaries perform their duty in 'preaching the gospel, and the convert owes his regeneration to the spirit of God. Coming events cast their shadows before, and like causes produce similar effects. The inci- dent succeeding John's vision is to be a great political revolution ; an event forming so important an era that it alone is pre-eminently entrusted to the promulgation of an angel, verse 8th : " And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon- is AVGHANISTAUN. 51 fallen, is fallen, that great city," &c. The predic- tion indicates the overthrow of infidelity, prefigured by " Babylon," by the destruction of civic institu- tions ; and without any other miracle than a Chris- tian emperor's ascendant, we may see the altars of Paganism cast down, the prejudices of super- stition rooted up, the bigotry and zeal of miscreant votaries swept away by the arm of political power, the edifices of idolatry reconstructed for Christian uses ; and when the Crescent shall have been sup- planted by the Cross, the " angel rising in the east,"* — whose commission is to stay judgment until the reorganization of the Jewish nation or twelve tribes shall have been accomplished, — finishing his charge, leaves the world free to the tramp of Rus- sian hosts, w^e may behold established the cause of Christ in the East, and Nicholas become to our modern age the champion of principles, in advo- cating which the first Christian emperor immor- talized the name of Consiantine. Throughout all Asia, in every community and nation, Mahomedan or Pagan, there exist traditionary prophecies that a people whose significant characteristics designate the European race, is predestined to conquer their possessions, to subjugate their power, and establish a new order of government and religion ; and the votary of Bramah, the disciples of Mahomed, the followers of Buddha, or the scholars of Fo and * The Eastern questions in the politics of these days, that is, the diplomatic relations of Europe with the East, as evidenced in the conspicuous position of the five great powers of Europe in reference to Turkey,'' Syria, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Bocharah, Avghanistaun, India, and China, in all which countries, England and Russia (the two ruling powers in the world) have especial political agents, actively employed in countervailing each other's influence, and establishing their respective interests. 52 INDIA AND Confucius, silently behold in solemn reverence the gradual approach of a great moral revolution, which the contemplative mind of their philosophy views with the unimpassioned and submissive resignation of fatalism. The science of astrology, so vaguely prophetic in its general sense in re- ference to the futurity of these nations, with won- derful congruity and unanimity of design con- spicuously and precisely accords " the doom of unavoided destiny" a period not far removed into the uncertain shade of approaching time — implies the proximity of an event of which existing cir- cumstances also denote the near completion. The American missionaries are coequal in ac^ tivity, in abihty and disposition of talent with their European coadjutors, and w^hilst their pursuits are honoured and their motives revered by all interested in the evangelization of infidel or heathen commu- nities, their singleness of design, confined alone to this imposing object, without in any way compromising their religious character with secular views, has frequently received the kind countenance and se- cured the gratuitous praises of officers high in the government services ; their commendations attest the qualifications, the morality and the zealous de- votion of our countrymen in the missionary cause. The American Board of Foreign Missions has established stations in numerous positions of North- ern India, and their missionaries have proved themselves exemplary and honoured agents in a righteous cause. They have originated schools for the instruction of the natives in Christian literature. By the acquisition of the English language, which is taught through the medium of moral and reli- gious books, the pupils are unconsciously led to embrace enlightened views of our civilization and AVGHANISTAUN. 53 peculiar institutions. The soil is fertilized, the seed is cast, and we trust in the mercy of heaven for the beneficent results. The American Board of Foreign Missions has established a typographical and lithographic press at Loodianah, conducted by their own agent and devoted to the publication of works useful in the dissemination of pious know- ledge. Many excellent translations of tracts and parts of Scripture, selected by the judgment of men well acquainted with the moral wants of the people subject to their influence, have already emanated from this source. By the existence of this press upon the Seik frontier, a desire to examine the sources of European knowledge was generated in the mind of Runjeet'h Singh. A commission was appointed by that prince to investigate the facilities for getting up a printing press at his capital of Lahore. But these unexpanded hopes of progres- sive improvement in the Panjab have been blasted by the death of Runjeet'h, the removal of his dynasty, and consequent anarchy of the Panjab government. The feudatory of Asia is still the child of nature, who disdains the restraints of civilization. With his horse in gay trappings of silver and gold, with his trusty spear in his hand, a sabre by his side and shield thrown over his back, he loves to prowl " en cavalier''^ upon his native deserts of plain and mountain, in pursuit of the chase or con- flict of battle ; and he covets the excitement, re- gardless whether the game be man or beast. A sharp sword and a bold heart supplant the laws of hereditary descent, and the physical powers of barbarous man supersede the quirks and quiddities of monotonous laws. The attempt of aspiring 54 INDIA AND genius or audacious ambition gains by the sabre's sweep and soul-propelling spur, a local habitation in a kingdom and a name amongst the crowned subdeities of the diademed earth. In British India, the fascinating train of military glory, which is the soul-sustaining spiriiuel of feudal life, has been cut off by the matter-of-fact drill master. Under English domination we have his stiff encumbered gait, in place of the reckless impetuosity of the predatory hero. The cane of the martinet displaces the war- rior's spear, and the formal close-set regimentals un- couthly usurp the place of the graceful flowing robes of oriental voluptuousness. By the conflicting interests of Russia and Eng- land in Central Asia, the masses of India have been awakened to the antagonizing principles which divide the European nations. They are fa- miliar with the struggle of democratic licentious- ness against exclusive legitimacy ; of divine right and representative privilege ; of absolutism, and the rights of man. To them the English are the advo- cates of political infidelity, whilst Russia is the patron of conservative principles, the head of the feudal system, the sympathizing sustainer of sym- pathetic institutions. To Russia they turn as to their political Kibla, even as their myriads address their prayers in worship before the temple of Mecca, or adore the benignant face of the day- illuming orb. To Russia, with intense desire, the expectant people daily and hourly look as the power representing to them the Deity on earth ; a saviour and protector ; the restorer of their political rights, the dignity of their kings, the bygone days of glory for the soldier, of peace and plenty for the peasant; security, power, and wealth, with absolute sway to princes. AVGHANISTAUN. 55 CHAPTER II. REPLY TO COUNT BJORNSTJERNa's INDIA, CONTINUED. To proceed with the Count's work. Enough has been said to show that his enumeration of physical obstacles are for the most part imaginary, and his topographical " facts," almost without an exception, either false or exaggerated. He further remarks, *' the Panjab is a marshy country, intersected by five great rivers," and I reply, that there is not a natural marsh in the whole country so large as the palm of my hand. A portion of the great Indian desert penetrates into the Panjab, and terminates in the province of Gujerath, near the Himaleh moun- tains, occupying the country between the river Hydaspes and Hydraotes, (the Jelum and Ravee.) Beyond this, extending to the Indus, are the sterile, argillaceous, and intractable upland plains of Potewar; to the south are the desolate tracts of immense jungle, consisting of high grass, dwarf bair, tamarisk, and baubul, so that the only pro- ductive and highly cultivated districts lie east of the Hydraotes, towards the Sutledge, and these are never marshy or even saturated, except during the rainy season, when occasional heavy falls of water 56 INDIA AND effect a temporary lodgement upon the flat surface of a plain many miles in length and breadth, from the river Bias (or Hyphasis) to the Sutledge (Sud- less or Hysudrus). Between these two rivers the soil is a fat vegetable mould, and the level of water is about three feet below the surface. Wells of this depth are sufficient for the purposes of irrigation, but the Panjab is nowhere marshy.* As for the rivers of the Panjab, I have crossed them all on horseback in the fall months ; and during winter the Indus may also be forded on horseback, near to and above the Attock ferry, without swimming the animal. The Count predetermines that Persia conjoined with Russia shall make no allies in a projected inva- sion of India. He alludes to the religious enmity existing between the Avghans and Persians: the for- mer being orthodox Soonee Mahomedans, whilst the latter are the schismatic followers of Ali, known by the sectarian appellation of Sheah. I can inform the Count that the religious watchword of " Dum i char Yar" no longer calls together the bigoted Soonee to oppose the less infatuated Sheahs in their alleged desecration of orthodoxy; and that these disciples of " Shah i Merdan" were tolerated and caressed in Cabul under the strictly impartial government of Dost Mahomed. There is no doubt of the violent enmity mutually prevailing between these two de- nominations, but governments are ruled by ex- pediency and not by religious bigotry or exasperated * Kanawan is the name of a fen made by the expansion of a stream forming a tributary amongst the head waters of the Bias. It skirts the Himaleh range, northeast of Lahore, on the frontier of Nadoun, a principal town of the Katouch principality, not within the geographical boundaries of the Panjab, although it has been subdued and added to the political compact of the Seiks. AVGHANISTAUN. 57 sectarianism, though passion influences a casting vote where policy does not oppose its voice. If the Avghans under Dost Mahomed saw that Russia and Persia united were stronger than England, they would have joined the former; if they suspected the allies of inability to withstand their enemies, they would have rendered their cause less hopeful by coalescing with their enemies. But now the Eng- lish, having advanced into Avghanistaun and at- tempted the subjugation of their country, there is no longer a doubt but they would readily unite with the forces of Russia and Persia to regain their national independence ; and the British, in case of an invasion of India by these powers, would be obliged to defend possession of Avghanistaun against a hostile popula- tion and a foreign enemy, and at the same moment to maintain their power against the fermenting mil- lions in her Indian dominions, which position would be final and fatal. Page 227: " In these extensive sandy deserts which lie on the road to India, it is impossible for horses to draw the heavy artillery and its ammunition" — a gratuitous assertion, which any native of Avghanistaun, Beloochistaun, Scind, or almost any part of ^sia, — except the great desert of Kobi, with which I am unacquainted, but upon which the Russian archives would probably en- lighten him, — can tell the Count is not the fact. No native army moves without artillery. Dost Mahomed had sixty pieces of cannon, many of them heavy battering guns, drawn by oxen, and many pieces of horse artillery. Shah Shujah ul Moolk, in his mili- tary demonstration against Kaudhar in 1833, from Shaokarpore, had sixteen pieces of horse artillery col- lected between Loodianah and Scind; and the British army (1839), consisting of 20,000 fighting men and 58 INDIA AND 60,000 camp followers, was accompanied by a regu- lar train of artillery, consisting of heavy mortars, breaching ordnance, and Hght batteries, all of which were transported on their carriages by bullocks, by horses, or by manual labour. The whole country, from Meshud to Attock, where the open plains com- mence towards India, and from the river Oxus to the Indian ocean, has been traversed again and again by native armies, cavalry and infantry, caravans and camels, time out of mind, with untrammelled facility, as appears from history ancient and modern, — from the days of Xerxes, " who stirred up all against the realm of Grecia,"* to the frivolous ephemera which emanated from the superficial mili- tary book-makers who accompanied the late Eng- lish expedition into Cabul. Page 238: "Coming in the Avghan mountain passes, with their hard and stony paths, the camel is useless." Accompanying the English army from Shaokarpore via Kandhar to Cabul, there were thirty-five thousand camels, ac- cording to the verbal report of the fiscal agent at Cabul; many of these animals, bred in the plains of Hindostan, died from privation, fatigue, and climate; but seasoned camels, prepared to sustain these dis- qualifying incidents, native to Khorassaun and Ta- tary, are readily procurable for an army advancing from Bulkh. The Bactrian camels afe the hardiest of all, and the Bughtee or short-legged animal, bred from the double-hunched Bactrian male camel, and the single-humped dromedary, is the strongest of its species, and capable of unexampled endurance. By the construction of its foot, which is provided with * See the account by Herodotus of the muster-roll of Xerxes' army. AVGHANISTAUN. 59 a longer toe-nail than ordinary to the dromedary, it is enabled to travel amongst mountains with ease. I have purchased this breed in Bactria, and found them excellent carriage cattle for crossing the In- dian Caucasus. I escorted a caravan into Bulkh, or rather a caravan was allowed to accompany my division, w^hen proceeding in the campaign against Kundooz in 1838-39. It was made up of 1600 camels and 600 pack-horses. We crossed the Paro- pamisus, via Bameean, Rooey, and Derrah i EsofF, debouching upon Mozar. The camel is the ordinary beast of burden in Avghanistaun. Travelling mer- chants or Lohanees pass from Lucknow in the heart of India proper, to Bocharah,the great capital of Central Asia, with at least 10,000 camels in their annual professional and migratory visits between these two celebrated marts of Oriental commerce. The Count lays great stress on the physical and political obstacles to a Russian invasion of India, as they existed previous to the late conquest by Eng- land in Central Asia. All those difficulties refer to the topography of the country and government of the principalities lying between the frontiers of Persia and India. How much then does Russia now owe to England for removing all those safe- guards to India, by advancing her frontier to Heraut, at once annihilating the neutral ground between her own empire and her antagonist, so that when a Russian army shall reach Bulkh, which is sufficiently accessible, they will forthwith come into conffict with the English at Cabul 1 Avghanis- taun and Lahore, no longer allies, in which character the Count fancied a host of invincible friends, but with all the warlike and partially subdued communities 60 INDIA AND lately* added to their troubled dominion, now de- cidedly exasperated into the condition of fierce and vindictive enemies, devoted to the revenge of their lost nationality, and ready to make common cause with the conquered princes of India proper. Page 243 : " A small army (inferring that a great one could not reach the Attock) cannot effect any thing on its arrival at the Indus against the supe- rior British force there stationed, which, amply supplied with the necessaries of war, can compete, as well in discipline and skill, as in bravery, with any army in the world." Without entering upon the questionable merits of the Anglo-Indian army, I will merely observe, that the same resources are available to Russia as have contributed for Eng- land the means of the Indian conquests, and that the " skill and bravery" of the Indian population is nowhere more plainly demonstrated than by the fact that some 30,000 Englishmen have subdued 140,000,000 of them. Again, if the Anglo-Indian army " can compete, as well in discipline and skill, as in bravery, with any army in the world,^^ those same 30,000 English will stand a miserable chance of salvation against the Anglo-Indian army itself when sustained by 100,000 regular troops of Russia, and the myriads that will rally under her standard in an Indian ex- pedition. The conquest of India by Russia involves an European question which will be decided when Constantinople shall no longer have a Moslem master; and this is a consummation which the fast * In the campaign against Cabul, for the establishment of the ancient regime under Shah Shujah ul Moolk, in 1838-39. AVGHANISTATJN. 61 progressing dissolution of the Ottoman power will quickly determine. We conclude with the Count (p. 243) that " British India seems to have nothing to fear from an inva- sion by foreign armies, so long at least as tran- quillity can be maintained in the interior of the empire." But internal convulsion is the necessary consequence of an invasion, and " the way to pro- duce such a convulsion within the bosom of the empire in India would be, either to conquer by de- grees {subdue by treaties!) one after another those states which lie on the route ; to spread and exaggerate the reports of such conquests, and to excite those causes of fermentation already ex- isting there ; or, what would he easier^ merely to stimulate by political influence the hostile senti- ments of those states towards British India {and of the Indian princes against the English) ; to influence the desire which they have cherished for centuries to make conquests in that country ; to organize their forces in the European manner, and, when the time is come, to give miHtary leaders to their armies, and direct their strategical operations against India." It is a mortifying conclusion, and an opinion no less true than humiliating, " that the measures of the In- dian government ought to have more the character of stability than of movement, be suited more to the ideas of an oriental population than to those of an occidental. The first will quiet the millions of India, the second will frighten them as interfering with their jnental repose.^^ It is this principle which does control the British government in the administration of Indian affairs, and there is therefore no movement in any of the measures designed for India. Justly may we exclaim with Burke, that " the British em- 62 INDIA AND pire in India is an awful thing." Whether viewed in regard to its responsibiUties or its results it is in- deed terrible and extraordinary. The government of 140,000,000 human beings, emphatically subject to the people of England and not to the crown, involves the British nation individually and collectively in the accountability of at least the system if not the administration of Indian polity. The conquests of Alexander were legitimated by the results of his victories. His power was extended by the sword and maintained by the arts of civilization. The savage Bactrians, the voluptuous Persians, the philosophical gymnosophist, successively submitted to his sway and received the civilization of Greece. Cities peopled by his camp followers and super- annuated soldiers became the basis of his support in distant countries,* so that the Macedonian invasion was rather a migration of military colonies esta- blished throughout the wide-spread conquests of their leader, and remained a blessing to succeeding generations by the introduction of the refinements of life, the arts and sciences, in the midst of com- munities exhausted by luxury or still rude in the practices of barbarism — elevating these two con- ditions to the medium of nervous energy which characterized their invaders ; yet the conquests of Alexander were effected by violence and haste, and * There was an Alexandria founded near Heraut, before enter- ing the plain of Tatary, a position established at Bactra (Bulkh), and an Alexandria ad calcem Caucasi south of this range of mountains, near Cabul, which served for military bases in Alex- ander's demonstrations in Central Asia. The cities built or founded by the conqueror were originally nothing more than fortified camps ; and the subsequent wealth and magnificence of these celebrated places, testify the judicious selection of their sites for commercial and military purposes. AVGHANISTAUN. 63 probably far beyond the extent originally contem- plated. The period occupied in the subjugation of the then known world was comprised between the time of his crossing the Hellespont and his return and death at Babylon, viz., from 330 to 323 B. C, in all about seven years. Vast designs for the benefit of mankind were conceived and executed within this brief space in the age of nations. So permanent were these projects in their results, that kingdoms and dynasties started into existence from well- planned schemes, which subsequently endured with the Seleu&idse and the Ptolemies through centuries of time, handing down to posterity the refinements and literature of Greece and Egypt ; perpetuating the purposes of benevolence which originated in the divine mind of their immortal founder, — the universal philanthropist no less than universal conqueror. The remnants of Grecian antiquities still to be found in Central Asia bear witness to the extent of civilization which existed in countries subdued by the remote operations of Alexander's expedition, after the lapse of twenty-two centuries. I have now before me an engraved gem, in the form of a signet, found at Beygram, (site of Alexandria ad calcem Caucasi,) near Cabul, representing the tutelar deity of Athens, in a threefold character, viz. : the patro- ness of navigation, of war, and of letters. The whole is comprised upon a table no larger than a central section of a split pea : the material a ruby, about the thickness of a playing card, highly polished. The engraving has been done by a few bold strokes of the practised hand of an expert artist : the finest delicacy of tact was necessary to manipulate the mere scale of a substance so extremely fragile. The figure represents Minerva standing on the prow of 64 INDIA. AND a boat, armed with helmet, shield, and spear, and bearing the germ of letters near the back of the shoulder, the Greek alpha, which also implies the name of the goddess, Athenac. The bold and scien- tific address skilfully exhibited in the execution of the engraving, the polish of the gem, the voluminous design of the representation, indicate the arts, the sciences, the commerce, war, and letters predomi- nant twenty-two centuries ago in the heart of Asia, implanted there by a European philanthropist, in a country now no longer acquainted with the ex- pired empires which numbered its population and ancestry amongst the noblest of the human race, the accomplished progenitors of ancient days. In seven years Alexander performed feats that have consecrated his memory amongst the benefactors of mankind, and impressed the stamp of civilization on the face of the known world, which have comme- morated his labours amongst the blessings of a Deity with a deserved though flattering attribution of wor- shipping votaries. Turn now to England, and see what she has done for Asia after the military and unmolested posses- sion of the country, the absolute and undisputed administration of the government, legislative and executive, for a period of eighty years 1 England, the zealous friend of the purity of government throughout the universe, the country which arro- gates to itself a paramount position amongst the monarchs of this palmy world, the paragon of na- tions ! At this moment, if the Indo-British govern- ment was dissolved, and the English were withdrawn from India, there would be left no other memorial of their previous existence than the monuments of their inhumanity, — the barracks, the hospitals, and AVGHANISTAUN. 65 the jails; the cantonments of their soldiers, the in- struments of their tyranny ; the hospitals and jails for the victims of their revenue system, their crush- ing political economy, their irresponsible and de- spotic sway. No city marks the site of British phi- lanthropy in fated India, but the ruins of villages and depopulated districts show where the griping hand of an English collector has blasted the hopes of a generation. Do we seek for commercial im- munities, facilities, or institutions bestowed upon the Indian people, and which may have been rationally anticipated as an expedient measure in a community whose rulers have been called a nation of " shop- keepers 1" — The certainty of temporary possession has cut short prospective legislation, and the destitute apathy of oppressed and plundered millions stand be- fore you in nakedness, hunger, and utter mendicity. Have the arts and civilization of Europe munifi- cently blessed the communities of Asia — the sci- ences and the beaux arts diffused among them? be- hold a laconic demonstration of the abuses attending on British policy in India. Slavery, " where the peasant is sold and none to buy," slavery in its cruellest form — forced labour without a patron. Famines, discontent, disaffec- tion, and rebellion, financial distress, fall of prices, reduced revenues, crime abounding, low wages and high interest of money, monopolies of salt, opium, and tobacco. Empire of opinion, might against right, cultivation declining, total absence of internal improvement, no public works, no roads, no canals,* * The reconstruction of the old canal of All Murdaun near Delhi does not impugn the assertion. The solitary and partial exception 5 66 INDIA AND no dissemination of knowledge or improvements in education. We see here the consequences of a miUtary despotism ; a government imposed upon milHons, and sustained hy the sword, without a philanthropic motive; originating in cupidity, nou- rished and developed by tyrannous force, sealed in blood. The tenure of the British rule is a phenomenon unprecedented in the history of man- kind, and of wonderful and unexampled interest. In the beginning, those who now govern India were an association of traders, a band of commer- cial adventurers, a body of hucksters, natives of a small, contemptible island in the Western Ocean. Having tasted the luxuries of Asia, enjoyed the profits of a voyage to India, and beheld the muni- ficent rivers of wealth which then flowed from exhaustless and untouched sources, these future conquerors, lowly and submissively, with unpre- tending humility solicited permission of the Indian princes to traffic in their dominions. A factory, purely for the transactions of their trade, was esta- blished and tolerated upon the extremest confines of the Moghul's possessions. The feeble Indians simply cherished with hospitable designs the starv- ing snake which was to bask hereafter in their rather proves the unfinished design of impotent enterprise. The British policy is full of ostentatious feints of systematic deception, amongst which the garb of philanthropy is an antique habit. Witness her long-practised anti-slavery doctrines in the West exploded by her grasping and audacious assumption of maritime supremacy ; her infamous invasion of Chinese civilization, with the pretext of dispelling the illusions of barbarism amongst a people where, if stability of government and " the greatest happi- ness of the greatest number" are criterions of judgment, the palm of refinement is unsuccessfully contested by any European nation. AVGHANISTAUN. 67 vitals, to batten upon the blood of their people, and fertilize futurity with the plunder of their treasures. The Indians say they craved only so much land as might be enclosed by a cow's hide ; the favour was conferred, and the claimants shred their hide into strings, artfully enclosing a considerable space, upon which ^factory or rather a fort — for the edifice served both purposes — was quietly reared, and they became for one hundred and fifty years the unmo- lested possessors of a malignant spot upon the disk of a threatened empire. Other European nations, the Spaniards, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch, had attempted the experiment of distant dominion. To these people, who anticipated the English in the assumption of political power, our band of adventurers became the object of jealous hostility. Prompted by the successful issue of speculations planned by their European competitors for the political aggrandizement of their respective establishments, the English were stirred to the exe- cution of ambitious projects which invested them with territorial sovereignty; subsequently, the neces- sity of defending their position involved them in wars of endless conquests. The Indians too late dis- covered their fatal error; unavailing efforts to drive out the intruders served to strengthen their enemies ; they were diverted from defensive measures by internal commotions, and distracted by the crash of the Moghul Empire, which was then in a state of rapid dissolution. Their struggles were enfeebled by domestic divisions ; the English, ever ready to avail themselves of these disasters, stimulated the native chiefs, as the princes of India strove for independence, against each other ; and carrying out the maxim of " divide et impera," they became the umpires of 68 INDIA AND conflicting governments. Wielding the power thus attained for the prosecution of their original object, as they gradually assumed the supremacy of do- minion, and each successive conquest, like a stone thrown into the sea of nations, has expanded the circles of their power, until every, part of the Moghul Empire has become subjugated to their sway. Sir John Malcolm informs us, " the Company were indebted to a physician for the formation of their establishment in Bengal." This was the com- mencement of their prosperity, and they owed their fortune to a singular accident. A gentleman named Broughton, went from Surat to Agra, where he chanced to cure the daughter of the Emperor Shah Jehan of a severe malady ; among the rewards of this benefit, he received the privilege of carrying on a free trade. His medical skill also ingratiated him with the Nawaub of Bengal, who extended the pri- vilege to his nation ; and the Company were enabled in 1636 to build a factory at Hoogly. Their medi- cal officers frequently became diplomatic agents, when despatched on professional visits to the Indian princes. On another occasion one of these prac- tised messengers sent to the Emperor Feroksere in 1715, was instructed to solicit exclusive commercial immunities for his nation; in this petition he was successful.* Thus, the foundations of this vast empire * The superior skill of Europeans in medicine, which had first enabled them to obtain a footing in Bengal, now afforded an op- portunity of greatly extending their influence. In 1715, under the reign of the Emperor Feroksere, the Presidency sent two factors, with an Armenian merchant, on a commercial mission to Delhi. "The principal object was defeated, but the Emperor happening to labour under a severe illness, which the ignorance of the native physicians rendered them unable to treat with success, was com- pletely cured by a medical gentleman named Hamilton, who ac- AVGHANISTAUN. 69 may be inscribed by the voice of fancy, with the retord of gratitude due to the professional abilities of a physician. Eighty years have elapsed since the operations of Lord Clive renewed the English power in India, and within that period has the mighty sway been created, which now embraces a great continent, and 140,000,000 vassals subject to the political influence of England. Their systena is chiefly managed by a native sly my of about 160,000 well disciplined troops, while the entire nnilitary force, composed of British or Europeans, falls short of 30,000 ; and the estimated number of all the Europeans in India, not in the civil or military service, scarcely reaches three thousand ! companied the embassy. For this signal service he was desired to name his reward. Animated by a patriotic spirit, he asked only privileges and advantages for the Company, and obtained a grant of three villages in the vicinity of Madras, with liberty to purchase in Bengal thirty seven additional townships ; an arrangement which would have secured a territory extending ten miles upwards from Calcutta. " The Emperor granted also the still more important privilege of introducing and conveying their goods through Bengal, without duty or search. But the acquisition of these districts was frus- trated by the artful hostility of the Nawaub, who, by private threats deterred the owners from consenting to the purchase. Still the permission of free trade, though limited to foreign exports and im- ports, proved of the greatest importance, and soon rendered Cal- cutta a very flourishing settlement." — Hist, of India, vol. i. p. 268. 70 INDIA AND CHAPTER III. GEOGRAPHICAL BOUNDARIES OF BRITISH INDIA ^MORAL AND PHYSICAL CHARACTER OF THE PEOPLE. The British power now embraces the whole of that vast region, which extends from Cape Comorin to the mountains of Thibet and the Indian Cau- casus, and from the longitude of Heraut to Arracan inclusive, (between 64° and 94° east of London.) By the military occupation of eastern Khorassaun (Avghanistaun) as an impregnable frontier against foreign European aggression, imagining their power sufficiently consoHdated in Central Asia, they have despatched an armament of European and native troops to open negotiations with the Emperor of China for the establishment of their commercial rela- tions with that empire on a firm basis of lasting friendship! A correct knowledge of the moral and physical character of the people inhabiting the Indo-British empire, will lead us to a proper estimate of their military powers, enable us to ascertain their value amongst the race of man, and the rank of their degree in the range of civilization. The Hindoo and Mussulman population, which AVGHANISTAUN. 71 are the principal divisions of the mass, comprises every variety and description of human beings. Some of them intelligent and active, but for the most part oppressed by poverty, sunk into apathy, and debased by revolting ignorance. The bravest and the boldest men may be found in the midst of the timid and abject. The fierce spirit of their turbulent military tribes is untamed. Partially re- strained by their conquerors, the unbounded genius of revenge, the self-consuming and the self-existing principle of ambition stimulate their hatred of a foreign race. Impatient and incorrigible, they che- rish a profound mahgnily of aversion to the British yoke. But their efforts to throw off the power that trammels the expansion of dark designs, displays the futility of military enterprise unsustained by social faith. Reciprocal fidelity is the bond of union which confirms the social condition of man, and unity is the key that opens before us the portal to successful results. National mistrust of their native princes, arising from their unstable principles, their infirmity of purpose, their cupidity, and the imbe- cility of mere physical force opposed to scien- tific system, generate treason in place of confi- dence, and to realize their hopes of future indepen- dence, a point of concentration is ardently sought after, which shall be antagonist in every attribute to their European military oppressors. By the aid of such a power they may achieve the ascendant, and recover the inheritance of their ancestorial rights. " The native soldier — who are for the most part Hindoos — is shrewd, quick and tractable; facile in his conception, and fond of pre-eminence and mili- tary glory ; irascible and readily excited, capable 72 INDIA AND when skilfully managed of courageous efforts and en- during patience;" but his physical powers are feeble and unsuited to the moral aptitude of perseve- rance. Quickly exhausted, he falls an early victim to continued fatigue, and the inclemencies of a cold and novel climate, which would scarcely be re- garded by the robust capabilities of an European. The granivorous Indian falling into hopeless, list- less insignificance in comparison with the massive- limbed carnivorous consumer of the western hemi- sphere. The physical temperament of the Hindoos has strongly affected their character, and exhibits prominently their incapability to oppose the robust strength and personal prowess of European troops. '' Their make is slender and delicate ; their shapes are in general fine; the muscular strength is small, even less than the appearance of their bodies, though ex- pressive of weakness, would lead the spectator to infer. Their stature in general is considerably lower than the European standard, though such inferiority is more remarkable in the south, and diminishes as you advance towards the north. The extreme simplicity and lightness of the aliments used by the Hindoo, and the smallness of his con- sumption, owing to his sedentary life and the sump- tuary laws of his religious system, must undoubt- edly have been amongst the causes of the lightness and feebleness of his frame: his food consists almost solely of rice, and his drink is nothing but water. Abstinence and temperance, whilst they generate mutually sustaining each other. His de- mands are satisfied with a pittance which appears extreme to the people of almost every other part of the world. The prohibition by the Hindoo religion of the flesh of animals for food is not such as to AVGHANISTAUN. 73 have produced by any means a total abstinence, but the quantity consumed is no doubt small. The luxury of the Hindoo is butter, prepared in a man- ner pecuUar to himself, called by him ghee. *' In Hindostan the people of all sorts are a dimi- nutive race. From the great delicacy of his tex- ture the Hindoo's imagination and passions are easily inflamed, and he has a sharpness and quick- ness of intellect which seems strongly connected with the sensibility of his outward frame. But though the body of the Hindoo is feeble it is agile in an extraordinary degree. In running and march- ing they equal, if not surpass, people of the most robust constitutions. Their messengers will go fifty miles a day for twenty or thirty days without inter- mission. Their infantry, if totally unincumbered ivith burthens, which they could by no means sup- port, will march faster and with less weariness than Europeans. Another remarkable circum- stance in the character of the Hindoos, in part too no doubt the effect of corporeal weakness, though in some sort opposite to that excitability which has been remarked, is the inertness of disposition so re- markable to all observers of this peculiar race. The love of repose reigns in India with more pow- erful sway than in any other region probably of the globe. Listlessness and phlegmatic indolence per- vade the inhabitants, who follow the precepts of Brahma. Few pains, to the mind of a Hindoo, are equal to that of bodily exertion ; the pleasure must be intense which he prefers to that of its total cessation." This listlessness and apathy is partly the effect of climate and partly the consequence of their political system, the first deteriorating the body, and the latter subduing the intellectual ener- 74 INDIA AND gies. Inanition and oppression bring mendicity and nnisery in their train. From tiiis condition of life they are relieved by death, and the belief in the transmigration of souls presents the finale of nature in the light of a coveted maturity. The tyrannical and ruinous system of fiscal policy and bad revenue institutions deprive the peasant of all extraneous wealth accruing from the utmost stretch of labour, and leaves merely the miserable portion of necessary rations for animal subsistence. The plan of farming great estates to the Zemindars, who adopt the principle of subletting to the highest bidder to minor labourers, produces precisely the same distressing effects in India as follow the same project of agriculturists in Ireland. Mendicity and the spirit of turbulence, held down by the bayonet, give rise to apathy and listlessness. Thus a government, evil in effect and absolute in form, — a British executive government, without British law, an Oriental despotism, — has riveted the shackles of slavery upon the whole agricultural population of British India. The working classes, — and here every man is a productive labourer except the usurer (money- lender,) — provide for the luxury of others, and in most instances barely participating in the fruits thereof. And it is a fact, that the inhabitants of extensive districts have been known to subsist on the spontaneous produce of the soil, as grass seeds, potherbs and ground thorns, during several months in the year. The price of one-sixth of a penny sterling (about half a pice) in the quantity of flour necessary for daily subsistence, is a sufficient cause to command and induce the temporary migration of the poor members of a community, from a village AVGHANISTAUN. 75 whose produce may have suffered from drought, to another more fortunate, though at the distance of several days' journey. Immense crov^ds of persons who depend upon day-work for their subsistence, are sometimes seen moving through a country in rags or nakedness, flying before the pestilence of threatened famine, whilst pampered luxury prevails in the palaces of their chiefs. The natives of India, subjected to a wretched government, under which the fruits of labour are not secure, are without a motive to work, no less so than the enslaved African for whom the EngUsh affect the warmest sympathy. 76 INDIA AND CHAPTER IV. FOREIGN RELATIONS OF BRITISH INDIA. By referring to the foreign relations of the Indo- British empire, we shall instantly see the fragile tenure by which England preserves possession of her Oriental dominions. According to the highest authority it is alone by the bravery and fidelity of the sepoys that India can be preserved to Great Britain. Sir John Malcolm deprecates any acces- sion to the European force, on the ground that it might, from particular causes, weaken the attach- ment and lessen the efficiency of the native troops ; at the same time this very competent judge acknow- ledges that his countrymen can never succeed in establishing any cordial or social union with their Indian subjects, so widely do they differ in manners, language, religion, and feelings. Other material circumstances contribute to render the British do- minion precarious and unique, and to exact the utmost care in the selection of the depositary of that arbitrary power, without which it cannot be prolonged, or even beneficially administered for the rulers or the people.* * " British government without British law !" AVGHANISTAUN. 77 Sir John Malcolm observes : " The only safe view that Great Britain can take of her empire in India, is to consider it, as it really is, always in a state of danger, and to think it quite impossible to render her possessions in that country secure, ex- cept under the management of able and firm rulers. If a succession of men of great talents and virtues cannot be found, or if the operation of any influ- ence on party feelings and principles prevents their being chosen, we must reconcile ourselves to the serious hazard of the early decline, if not the loss of the great dominion we have founded in the East." This was the condition of the British power in India at a time when there was no European rival, or the prospect of an antagonist, on the immense arena of conflicting nations. How has the preca- rious position of the government been aggravated by the approximation of a hostile power in the Rus- sian military demonstrations and prevalence of her diplomatic influence in Persia, in Central Asia, and the contiguous provinces of India ! Considerations of this nature induced the governor-general of India to attempt and effect the military occupation of Avghanistaun. This measure of the Indo-British government is a profound error of policy. Diplo- macy and economy condemn the movement, no less than the national safety and defensive plan of operations which the position of India suggests. It was remarked by a son of Jelall ul Deen, Akber, the greatest of his race who dignified the throne of the Great Moghul, that the fortress of Akberabad was without a ditch. The Emperor replied, " My son, the river Indus is the ditch of Agra." The Indus has always been alleged as the frontier of India, and the laws of Menu prohibit the 78 INDIA AND followers of Bramah from crossing that stream. But the institutes of the reverend Menu are not without the pale of reformation ; the god of Menu has been partially displaced from his temples in these degenerate days, and gold is worshipped as the spirit of the age. The conservative and un- changing Brahmin, at the bidding of his golden deity, threw dust in the eyes of Menu, and ir- reverently disobeyed the laws of his forefathers. The geographical boundary on the west has been crossed ; a barrier to the self-protection of India overthrown ; new kingdoms have been subdued at an enormous and incredible expense. Extended foreign relations, and the acquisition of strange dominions unconnected with India, require separate establishments, military and civil, for their mainte- nance ; and we have now a portion of the empire of Central Asia to encrase our consideration, which is another and an independent Tatar dominion, in no way a part of the Indo-British government, having relations with the surrounding states in- volving a web of policy that brings back again to Europe the universal sway of England. A line now drawn from Constantinople to Pekin, (exclusive of Persia,) will divide the East between England and Russia ; all to the south falling to the former, whilst the latter emphatically claims and holds the north. By advancing their frontier into Central Asia, the British re-established what has some time been the political boundary of India, viz. : the Indian Caucasus ; though if this consideration influenced their measures, they should have gone to the river Oxus, which still more frequently has been the political boundary of the Persian or the Indian empire, dividing the Maver ul Neher and Khwa- rizm of Arabian geographers from the latter. AVGHANISTAUN. 79 Unconnected and distant from India, the partially subdued and struggling Avghans still oblige their infidel masters to depend upon their southeastern dominion as a base of action ; thus they aggravate the hazard of compromising the safety of their In- dian empire, for without elaborating the means of sustaining a large military force in Central Asia, they have incurred the responsibility of defending, from a distant base, liable to interruption from poli- tical, and they may be permanent causes, a position, the evacuation of which cannot be proposed without displaying an inferiority to their competitors. The elucidation of this truth would draw upon them the quiescent but not subdued energies of a turbulent and oppressed population. The approach of Rus- sian influence, and the extension of her frontier, places the British government in the dangerous po- sition of being obliged to defend her Indian empire against internal commotion, at the same moment she is necessitated to repel the agression of a foreign power, with whom the means of her defence are physically inadequate to contend ! But I am of opinion that the moral influence of Russia could ex- tinguish by diplomacy alone the British power in India. Sustained by a military force at Bulkh, the intelligent and astute corps diplomatique of Russia *' would excite those causes of fermentation existing there," which would produce " a convulsion within the bosom of the empire," revolutions of opinion, rebellions, insurrections en masse of the whole popu- lation, war, violence, and devastation, desolating and exterminating the English, and ending in the disintegration of the British empire. 80 * INDIA AND CHAPTER V. ROUTES INTO INDIA. By my late expedition into Tatary from Cabul to Bulkh in 1838-39, an enterprise of great magni- tude was accomplished. Commanding a division of the Cabul army, and accompanied by a train of artillery, that stupendous range of mountains the Indian Caucasus was crossed through the Paropa- misus. The military topography and resources of the country were practically tested. Impediments which were supposed to present insurmountable ob- stacles to the passage of an army, proved to be dif- ficulties readily vanquished by labour and perseve- rance, and the practicability of invading India from the north, no longer doubtful, has become a feasible and demonstrable operation. To follow the system of Alexander, Bulkh, the ancient Bactra, should be made the base of action of every military movement against India. Bulkh is the capital of Central Asia, morally and politically; and the power holding possession of this far-famed city, — which is supposed by the Orientals to have been the first built, thence called Mader i Bulad, or the Mother of Cities, — would be enabled to exer- cise over the superstitious natives a supremacy AVGHANISTAUN. 81 which it is an article of their faith to number amongst the fated incidents of their race, viz., the predominance of Christian policy over the king- doms of all the earth ; — and one of the signs which mark the approach of this period, is indicated by the re-edification of Bulkh, which is again to flou- rish, according to their traditions, as the capital of Central Asia. The resources of the Uzbeck States have sus- tained the armies of a conqueror, who we are told by history plundered both Delhi and Moscow (whose descendant still occupies the throne of Pekin), and whose dynasty has, within the last eighty years, been removed from the throne of Delhi ! The greatest military empires that ever existed, not inferior even to the Russian of this age, or rather day, strove for predominance on the Uzbeck plains, and ruled alternately at Bulkh, at Samerkand, or Ghiznee ; respectively, the empire of Darius Hystaspes, the empire of Timour, and of Abastagi, or Mahmoud. These expired empires, no longer claiming military distinction in the grade of nations, have become purely agricultural and pastoral, and adequate to the maintenance of mili- tary array now as when under the sway of Darius Hystaspes,* of Chagati, of Timour, and Mahmoud. Numberless hosts have contested for mastery upon * In the reign of Darius Hystaspes the celebrated Zoroaster promulgated at Bulkh or Bactra the religious system of the Fire- Worshippers, and in this place a great temple was foiinded and dedicated to the Sun. At present every remnant of antiquity has disappeared from superficial inspection, and no vestiges of the former existence of a Grecian or Persian city are now visible, although the uneven surface of the ground in the vicinity of the modern town, would probably disclose beneath its mounds indi- cations of former days. 6 82 INDIA AND these plains, and nation following nation from the far and naysterious East, have poured forth their migratory hordes over this great thoroughfare of the world to conquer and to colonize the wastes of Europe with Tatar blood,* and prove the fruitful- ness of Central Asia.-j- Those golden-sanded rivers, the Oxus and Jax- artes, penetrate far into the interior of the Uzbeck States, and connect their remotest provinces with the great commercial depot of Astrakhan in southern Russia, and ultimately with Moscow : they ensure the necessary capabilities for strategical demonstra- tions. Whilst the political divisions and internal dis- sensions of the country invite the regard of Russia, the geography multiplies the facilities of accomplish- ing all that an invading power could aspire to hope. To ascertain the probabilities of success in any enterprise, we should examine the facts and attend to the results attained under corresponding circum- stances. Reviewing the causes and consequences connected with the adventures of antecedent con- querors of India, we may observe, that this country, though it has frequently been subjugated, has always been subdued, until the advent of British ascendancy, by an invasion from the north ; and it is an undoubted fact, that each individual who signalized his name by an inroad into, or aggrandized his empire by annexing India to his dominions, consummated his views through similar if not precisely the same plan of operations. Abstracting from the account of available references the antiquated and problematic intimations of India derived from scriptural allusions * The Huns, the Alemanni, the Turks and Moghuls, &c. &c. t The Uzbeck States. AVGHANISTAUN. 83 in the days of Ezekiel (xxvii. 23), the fabulous mythology of Bacchus, and the no less doubtful traditions of Sesostris and Semiramis, we assume with Herodotus the authenticated records of history, which point to Darius Hystaspes as the first suc- cessful invader of India, whose inroads were at- tended by permanent results. When India formed one of the twenty satrapies of Persia, Bactra was the capital of Darius, a city upon the site of which we have now the modern town of Bulkh ; and it was from this position of the central province of the Sun, that Darius, having previously ascertained by the expedition of Scylax the feasibility of his own ambitious designs, attempted and effected the conquest of India. Subsequently, Alexander claimed India as a province of Persia, as partially appears from Quintus Curtius. Having overrun the whole of the Persian empire as far as the river Jaxartes, he established a government and cantoned his army for awhile at Bulkh, and finding Persia every where subdued and submissive, he crossed the Paro- pamisus and completed the subjugation of the known world by the conquest of India. Bulkh was his base of action on the north of the Paropamisian range. There is a gorge opening into the valley of Cabul near Seri Chushma, at the debouche of the pass of Onai, descending from the north, which is called at this day " Dahun i Secundereah," or debouche of Alexandria. From this incident it may be inferred the valley of Cabul was probably known to the Greeks as the province of Alexandria, and that Beygram was the site of the city of Alexandria ad calcem Caucasi. This position was one of the intermediate points of communication between Bactra and iVttock, the chain being completed by 84 INDIA AND Nysia — supposed to have been founded by Bacchus, now called Ningrahar or Djilallabad — and Peshour, the Peucalaotes* of the Greeks. Alexandria ad calcem Caucasi, as may be seen by inspection of the map, commands the debouche of the route over the Hindoo Kush, via Ghorebund, and also that by Panjshare. The western extremity of the plain, called Koh damum, in which the ancient city stood, commands the Bameean route at the gorge of Se- cundereah. The city being placed on the eastern side of the plain, in the vicinity of the difficult moun- * Peucalaotes — This term evidently means Peshour ; for if we cut off the Greek termination, which their writers were accustomed to add to the names of localities, we have Peucola. Now in the Avghan pronunciation the s in Peshour is pronounced k, and we have Peukola. The 1 is represented by r in languages which are deficient in the liquid, as the Chinese : where the 1 does not exist, The r is always substituted ; and you are sometimes olFered a very unsaleable commodity by a Chinaman who proposes to dispose of a bag of rice. The sound of 1 and r when occurring in the middle division of a word is scarcely distinguishable, and those who lisp or have otherwise an impediment in their speech, invariably say one for the other, so that by this process of derivation, without violating orthography, we have the modern Peshour distinctly representing the Greek Peucalaotes. By a similar mode of deriva- tion we have the modern Ab-i-Cheen, Ab-i-Sinai, or Ascessines ; and Ravee from Hydraotes or Hydravotes, the first syllable signifying river or water, the third place or locality, the second the native Indian name. The Byas, Bias, Beeas or Veas, is the Hyphasis. The Sutledge, Sudless, Sudruss, Sudledge, is the Hysudrus, making Sudless without the Greek prefix. The name of Hydaspes comes from the compound of river and horse in the Greek and Persian languages. The appellation was probably conferred in consequence of the death of Bucephalus, who was killed in the battle with Porus or Poorun, as he is called in Indian annals, which was fought upon the plain bordered on its west by the Hydaspes, in the modern jurisdiction of Guzerath, of which I was both civil and military governor for several years when in the service of his highness Maba Rajah Runjeet'h Singh, Prince of the Panjab. AVGIIANISTAUN. 85 tain passes towards Ghorebund, or Gholebund,* as it is colloquially pronounced, Panjshare, Tugao Saffi, and Tazeen, to restrain the wild hordes of those alpine districts, whilst it also overruled and garri- soned the plain. After the death of Alexander, Bactria, which in- cluded Avghanistaun, fell to Seleucus, and shortly after the decline of the Syrian kingdom, became an independent state, governed by Grecian rulers, and continued several ages a powerful and enlightened dominion. The history of this period is involved in darkness, and the only elucidation which can now be ascer- tained has lately been laid open by interesting and important discoveries in numismatology. Coins, which are the representatives of expired nations, now illuminate the mysterious history of the Bac- trian empire, denoting to modern investigation its extent and power. Under Menander, some of whose coins are now in my possession, Bactria was bounded on the north by the river Jaxartes, on the south by the Indian ocean ; and the conquests of this prince passed the Hyphasis on the east. The western boundary was probably the Caspian Sea. It was after the duration of nearly two hundred years that the irruption of barbarous conquerors from the North, the Chagat£e or Getse, and the rise of the Parthian empire, put an end to the kingdom of Bactria (page 49-50, Hist, of India.) India was invaded by the Parthian prince, Mithri- * Gholebund signifies spirifs prison, and it is a singular coinci- dence that the immense and undefined cave at Finjan is known in Sancrit lore as the cave of Promet'h, and is doubtless the locality called by the Greeks the cave of Prometheus, near which, we are told, was situated the city of Alexandria ad calcem Caucasi. 86 INDIA AND dates, but his expedition was probably a temporary inroad, as we are not aware of any permanent Parthian domination in India. Coins of the Sassa- nadian dynasty are numerous and frequently found in extensive deposits, adventitiously disclosed by the agricultural labours of individuals. They have been brought to view by the plough or the spade in con- siderable deposits, contained in earthen pots. A treasure of this kind was brought to Dost Mahomed, who despatched the coins to the mint, where the melting pot shortly renewed their currency. The Persians of Artaxerxes also penetrated far beyond the Indus. The coins of Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, with other rare antiquities of the Romans, have been found at Mankyallah in the Panjab. In the year 873 Ismael Samani of Bocharah assumed the title of king, and after nearly one hundred years the decline of his dynasty and a disputed succession enabled Abastagi, governor of the province of Khorassaun, Bulkh being his capi- tal, successfully to raise the standard of insurrec- tion. Becoming an independent sovereign, located at Bulkh, he added to his domain the high mountain territory of Cabul and Kandhar. The Avghans were a nation of hardy shepherds, husbandmen, and warriors, who have often extended the autho- rity of their princes over the surrounding countries. Here Abastagi selected Ghiznee as the capital of an empire which long ruled over Asia. From this period — 977, A. D. — we have authentic Mahomedan records of Indian history, by which we are made acquainted with the revolutions of dominion en- dured by the natives of that country. The succes- sors of Abastagi, in 997, A. D., subdued the repre- sentative of the Samanian dynasty, who ruled in AVGHANISTAUN. 87 Bocharah. Mahmoud,* the son of Sebuctagi,f joined with the King of the Uzbecks in extinguish- ing the empire of Bocharah, and the fine territory of Maver ul Neher (Transoxiana) was added to his dominion, which then comprehended all Asia, from the Caspian Sea to the Indus. In the reign of Masaood, who succeeded Mahmoud, the migratory conquests of the Turks under the Seljukian dynasty overran Khorassaun, and the successors of the Ghuznevide contended in vain with Toghrul, who subverted the throne of Bagdad, and was installed by Ul Keim, the last of the Khuleefas (caliphs), vicegerent of the Prophet. He was followed by Alp Arslan, that just and gallant warrior, who wrote upon his tomb at Mer'w, " Ye who have seen the glory of Alp Arslan exalted to the heavens, come and see it buried under the dust." The mo- narchs of Ghiznee saw wrested from them the fine plains of Khorassaun and Iraun — even that of Bulkh — and their dominion confined within the mountain barrier of the Caucasus. To the Toorks, whose inroads into India were commemorated by the nup- tial bonds of Alp Arslan's heir with the house of Ghiznee, the Ghorian monarchs succeeded. This dynasty was also derived from the North. The Ghorian princes sprang from a race of hardy mountaineers who inhabited the highest arable alti- tudes of the Paropamisus, now called Yenghore, near Bameean. Mahmoud of Ghoree obtained the government of Ghiznee in 1 174. He invaded India through Mooltaun and Ajmeer, consequently, to reach the last named place, he passed through the * In 997. t Called by Mahomedan historians Sebuktageen. He was the General of Abastagi, He ascended the throne of Ghiznee in 977. 88 INDIA AND Great Western Desert, which separates Rajpootana from Scind and Bhawulpore. Two campaigns were fought with Scythian valour ; the victories of the last repairing the dis- asters of the first, ended in the tumultuary flight and irredeemable discomfiture of the Indian army. The King of Delhi fell, and his empire became the prey of the Moslems, whose dominion was for the first time established in the heart of India. Mahomed returned to Ghuznee by the way of Lahore, leaving his lieutenant, Kuttub, to maintain his authority in that quarter. He was murdered on the banks of the Indus, near Attock, by the Guickwars, and the dynasty of Ghoree fell w'ith him. His lieutenants, Ildecuz in Ghuznee, and Kuttub in Delhi, soon erected for themselves independent sovereignties. Kuttub ul Deen was the founder of the Avghan or Patan dynasty, which continued from 1210 to the invasion and conquest of Baber the Moghul in 1525. The rule of the Patan dynasty was disturbed by the invasion of Timour the Tatar, known in oriental history by the cognomen of Timourleng; he claimed descent from Chungez. Timour conquered Delhi, but retained no acquisitions in India. His attention was drawn oflf by distant operations in Persia, and the west, Constantinople then being besieged by Byazeed (Bajazet). He was a native of Kokand or Ferghana, and after his death his immense domi- nions falling to pieces, this province of Kokand was all that remained to liis descendant Baber. Those conquerors also penetrated into India, via Cabul, crossing the Paropamisus from Bulkh. Of Timour it is said, " he set out from Samarkand (the Marakanda of Q. Curtius) in 1397, and advanced without diffi- culty along the immense plains of Bactria. Then AVGHANISTAUN. 89 he had to scale the tremendous barrier of the Indian Caucasus," &c. Subsequent to Baber, India was invaded by his son Humaioon, who had been de- throned and exiled. After residing several years at the Court of Persia, he regained his crown through the countenance of Shah Tamasp, who had maintained him with regal munificence. The King of Persia provided him with ten thousand men, and presented him with Cabul in Jaghire, on condition of his embracing the sectarian faith of Persia — that sect, called Sheah, viewed as schismatics by the orthodox Mahomedans. This stipulation, which the Indian prince seems never to have violated, accounts for the prevalence of the Sheah sect in India, all the Mahomedan rulers of which empire w^ere of the Suni or orthodox persuasion, until the reign of Humaioon. Receiving Cabul as a free gift from the King of Persia, he immediately added Kandhar to his possessions by treachery : thus returning the munificence of Shah Tamasp by an act of ingratitude und unthankful depravity. In- ternal rebellions frequently disturbed the peace of India, and the monarch, when obliged to yield to the adverse fortune of war, usually retreated to Cabul as a place of temporary refuge, where, gathering strength from the military population, they again subjected India to their sway. Nadir Shah, the Persian invader of India, in 1736 conquered Avghanistaun. It is said he first subdued Cabul and then reduced Kandhar. It is certain a division passed from Bulkh to Cabul, as I have been informed by the Uzbeck Prince of Khoolum, Mahomed Amir Beg Meer i Wallee, from whom I received the traditional lore of Nadir's inroad. Nadir saw what the sagacity of Lord Auckland 90 INDIA AND could not penetrate, that India and Persia could not be united in one kingdom ; and contenting himself with exacting from the King of Delhi, when the Indian empire lay prostrate at his feet, as he stood upon the ruins of its plundered capital, the cession of Cabul, Kandhar, and all the provinces, as a part of Persia, west of the Indus, — which river is known to be the geographical though not always the poli- tical boundary of India, — he reseated the King of Delhi anew upon his throne, giving him much salutary advice, and retreated across the Indus, never leaving a soldier or retaining a fortified post in Hindoostan. Eight years after this event Nadir was assassinated at Meshud in Khorassaun, and an Avghan, named Ahmed Abdalhee, being joined by the Avghan troops in Nadir's service, hastily returned to Kandhar, where he seized a great treasure on the way frorn India to Persia, and was proclaimed King of Avghanistaun by the coalition of a few principal chiefs of his native country. Ahmed Shah was the first of the Dooraunee monarchs. In 1747 he invaded India, defeated the Mahrattas, who then overran the Moghul empire, and entered Delhi as a conqueror. •' It was easy for the victorious Avghan to seat himself on the vacant throne of the Moghul, but he seems not to have felt any ambition for this high dignity. Perhaps he was sensible that amidst such a general agitation throughout Hindoostan as then prevailed, and with so many nations in arms, such an acquisition ivas too distant from Cabul, the centre of his dominions, to be retained with advantage. Contenting himself with the provinces west of the Indus, he quitted in a few months the seat of go- vernment, leaving there Alligohur, eldest son of AVGHANISTAUN. 91 Allumgeer the IT., in possession of the empty, but still venerated title of Great Moghul, to be the tool or become the captive of the first daring chief who should seize the capital." After this period Hindoostan was relieved from foreign invasion. The preparations of Shah Zemaun, the grandson of Ahmed, in conjunction with Tippoo Sooltaun, for a simultaneous attack upon the English, the xlvghans pouring down 100,000 cavalry from the north, whilst Tippoo, under the patronage of Na- poleon's policy, advanced from the south, terminated prematurely. The King of Cabul was distracted by rebellions at home, and the invasion of the province of Bulkh, which formed a part of his dominion, by the King of Bocharah, drew off his attention from India, and released the English from the dread of this threatened formidable invasion, instigated by the intrigues of France and Tippoo. Shah Zemaun penetrated into Lahore on several expeditions to levy tribute upon that province, which was a reluc- tant dependency of his empire. Runjeet'h* Singh was then a young adventurer, just commencing life, with a thousand mounted retainers at his heels. For services rendered on one of these expeditions, probably the last. Shah Zemaun conferred upon Run- jeet'h the gift of Lahore in feudal tenure. Lahore was then in the possession of Runjeet'h's enemies, who were too powerful to be immediately dislodged, and he was unable to enter into possession, but the document gave a claim which circumstances sub- sequently enabled him to enforce, and his conquest of the city of Lahore laid the foundations of his * Rannajeet'h, or King of Lions, 92 INDIA AND future fortunes. When Runjeet'h had partially consolidated the Panjab government by the union of nnany petty tribes, states, and principalities, he frequently made annual predatory demonstrations across the Sutledge as far as Sirhind, plundering the territories between the river and that frontier of the English. In 1809 Sir Charles Metcalfe, by order of the British government, made a treaty with Runjeet'h, which confined his miUtary operations to the right bank of the river Sutledge, but left him at liberty to extend his ambitious projects towards the territories beyond the Sutledge. The late expedition of the English into Avghanis- taun has again placed theMoghul empire under the dominion of one paramount power. These historical references indicate the accessible points of India, and they prove that every conqueror who directed the march of enterprise against India came from the north, estabhshed a military base at Bulkh, and advanced by Cabul. It is upon Bulkh that all the roads debouch, ad- vancing from the south; audit is upon Cabul all the passes into India concentrate, advancing from the north. Heraut and Kandhar are upon the great caravan route from Central Asia to the Deccan or South of India. That route, though an- nually travelled by commercial adventurers, has less frequently been the channel of military operations. A part of this route is in the line of indirect com- munication between Persia and Cabul, the division of it from Heraut to Kandhar : from that city it branches off northeast towards Cabul. There is a great commercial highway of nations from Con- stantinople to Pekin, and from Moscow to Delhi. AVGHANISTAUN. 93 Bulkh is the central or intersecting point upon these routes, and has always been the military and poli- tical capital of Asia, whether swayed by Persian or Greek, by Parthian, Toork, or Moghul. Upon this position every strategical operation against India must be based to command a fair prospect of success and permanent resuhs. 94 INDIA AND CHAPTER VI. REFERENCES FROM ENGLISH AUTHORITIES ON THE FOREIGN RELATIONS OP BRITISH INDIA. The present political condition of the neighbour- ing countries surrounding British India, viz. : Be- loochislaun, Avghanistaun, Bulkh, Panjab, Nepaul, Birmah, and China, and also the foreign relations of the Indo-British government, may be readily gathered from the annexed copious extracts, the issue of the Indian press. The information thus elicited will, it is supposed, place in a strong light the dubious position of the English in India, and their uneasy tenure of the country. The anxious fears of the Indian government be- fore the result of the expedition to Cabul transpired ; the frantic exultation succeeding a state of despon- dency when the achievement of an uncontested vic- tory gave a transient truce to those well-founded terrors ; the thanks of Parliament after the cam- paign, strongly indicate the danger which threat- ened the empire, even from the far distant rever- berations of the rumours of a Russian war. But the retreat of the Shah of Persia from Heraut reani- mated the quailing English, and respited them from AVGHANISTAUN. 95 those ominous aniicipations, which proved the inde- fensible state of British India, and demonstrated the easy conquest awaiting a bold and fearless enemy, characterized by dexterous policy and diplomatic skill. Extracts from the Indian press, and other authentic English sources, illustrating the foreign relations of the British power in India. March 29th, 1838.—" The relations between Cal- cutta and Ava cannot continue on their present un- satisfactory footing. Our attention is so exclusively required for the northwest, (that is, Cabul,) where the web of political combinations, extending from the Panjab to Circassia, appears to grow more complicated, that w'e cannot afford to allow any insecurity on our eastern boundary. All idea of a war, however, for the next six months, is out of the question. We shall not a second time, commit the incomparable folly of landing an army at Rangoon at the commencement of the rains, but the next cold season should not be al- lowed to pass over, without a decisive effort to place our intercourse with Ava upon so satisfactory a basis, as to enable us to leave our eastern frontier with confidence under the safeguard of our ordi- nary troops." April 13th. — " It is proposed, by taking up an im- posing attitude on our frontiers, to inspire the Bir- mese court with a wholesome awe, which may repress their hostile intentions. We shall be happy to find that these precautionary measures are effi- cacious in preventing the horrors of war. No man of common humanity would for a moment dream 96 INDIA AND of advocating a war, except as it appeared to be the shortest path to a solid and lasting peace. It is said that the new king will not commence a war with the English, unless some tempting occasion should arise. His object is gained for the present, if we allow him to banish the resident, to trample on the treat V of Yandaboo, and to insult the Governor- General with impunity. His future efforts will be confined to the disturbance of our frontiers, and to such annoyan?,e of our subjects as may weaken their confidence in us. He is not perhaps so much in- clined for war as his court and the Birmese no- bility in general are, but the Birmese, humbled for the first time since the days of Alompra, by the treaty of Yandaboo, thirst to regain their lost honour. We may therefore consider it as not so much probable as certain, that whenever we may be engaged in hostilities in any part of India, we shall inevi- tably have a Birmese war on our hands also. These transactions cannot fail to affect our position in Asia. For the first time since the battle of Plassey, we have received, instead of dictating the law. This is the first instance in which a British resident has been expelled from a court, the sanctity of treaties disregarded, and the authority of the Governor- General derided, without being followed by an im- mediate declaration of war. We must be cautious how we accustom the natives of Asia to the spectacle of our degradation. We know, that an intercourse has already been opened between Nepaul and Ava ; and we should not be surprised to find the example which has now been set, literally followed by the court of Catmandhoo." June 14th. — "In the year 1815, during the war be- twixt the Indo-British government and Nepaul, nu- AVGHANISTAUN. 97 merous solicitations had been addressed by the Gorkha Rajah to the Emperor of China. We then find Umer Singh, the Nepaul miHtary chief, strongly recommending to his master to make an urgent ap- peal to the court of Pekin for assistance, and submit- ting the proposed draft of an address to that effect. In this he invokes the active co-operation of the high and mighty emperor, on the grounds of the insult that had been offered to his supremacy by the English, in daring to invade a country owing al- legiance to, and enjoying the protection of the ('hinese government. The attack upon Nepaul is declared to be only a preliminary step to the inva- sion of Bootan and Thibet, and to securing the passes into the frontiers of China. The wealth and military resources of the British, the fact of their having conquered every prince in the plains, and having afterwards seated themselves on the throne of the Emperor of Delhi, are duly dwelt upon. In conclusion, he points out the readiest means of af- fording effective aid to their cause, to be the imme- diate advance of a loan of money for the mainte- nance of the Gorkha army, and the sending a force of 200,000 or 300,000 Chinese troops through the Dharma territory, that is, Dargeeling, into the lower provinces of Bengal, ' to spread alarm and consternation among the Europeans.' ' Con- sider,' says he, ' if you abandon your dependants, that the English will soon be masters of Lassa.' " After the commencement of hostilities, a com- munication from the Governor-General, cautioning the Chinese, in common with all other neighbour- ing states, against aiding or abetting the enemies of the British government, reached the Umbas at Shigatze, and awakened considerable apprehen- 7 98 INDIA AND sions in their minds. The original document was immediately forwarded to Pekin, and with it an ap- plication from the Rajah of Nepaul for assistance against the invaders. The Emperor is reported to have been highly indignant at the tone and the language assumed by the Marquis of Hastings, and after listening to the memorial of his officers to have exclaimed, ' these English seem to look upon them- selves as kings, and upon me as merely one of their neighbouring rajahs.' Orders were forthwith issued for a commission, composed of a Tseankeun and two other Tajin, to proceed under a military escort into the vicinity of the seat of war, to institute in- quiries ; and an army was ordered to march with all speed after them for the protection of the fron- tier line. This must have been the force, to whose arrival on the confines of the Chinese territories al- lusion is made in an official letter from Tytalia, dated June 1816. About this time, three Chinese officers, who styled themselves the Governors of Arzing, ad- dressed a letter to tlie Governor-General of India, through the medium of the Sikkim Rajah, a prince who was closely connected with the Deb Rajah and the Lama of Lassa, who had shown himself a staunch ally of the British government. In this address, the Chinese officers, after stating the insinuations regard- ing the ulterior views of the British government, that had been made against them by the Gorkha Rajah, proceeded thus : * Such absurd measures appear quite inconsistent with the usual wisdom of the British ; it is probable they never made the declarations imputed to them : if they did, it ivill not he well. An answer should be sent, as soon as possible, stating whether or not the English ever entertained such absurd pro- positions ; if they did not, let them write a suitable AVGHANISTAUN. 99 explanation to the Tseankeun, that he may report to the Emperor.' By the same opportunity was re- ceived a letter from the Sikkim Rajah, who stated, that the Gorkha Rajah had been trying to impose on the Cheen Rajah, with a story of the Europeans having united with him to attack and conquer Ne- paul and China, and this was the sole reason of the Cheen (Chinese) Rajah writing to the Governor- General. In reply, the Governor-General disclaimed any hostile intentions towards China." In the treaty of peace which soon followed with the Nepaulese, an article was inserted which pro- vided for the residence of a British agent at Cat- mandhoo, and was with difficulty stomached by the Gorkha cabinet ; and it was hoped that the Chinese government might be prevailed on to exert them- selves to prevent the establishment of European influence in their neighbourhood. The following narrative of an audience given to the Nepaulese Sirdars, who visited Shigatze for the above pur- pose, shows clearly enough, that having once got rid of their alarm regarding the advance of the English troops, the Chinese authorities had now be- come mainly solicitous to uphold the honour and dignity of their country by stopping the mouths of these men, who appealed to them for protection, and pointedly inquired what the world would say if the Emperor of China should abandon his tribu- taries and dependants to their fate 1 The narrative proceeds thus : Scene— Shigatze ; a garden-house near the city. " With the Tseankeun (generalissimo) were the two Tajin, seated in chairs, and all the subordinate officers of various ranks stood around them, with their hands joined before them, as if in the act of sup- 100 INDIA AND plicating. The Nepaulese Sirdars, having previously obtained pernnission to be attended by their armed escort of 111 nien, proceeded to the residence, marching by files in slow order. When they ap- proached the Tseankeun, the whole saluted him after the Chinese manner, by falling on their knees, from which position they arose by an order. During the visit, the Chinese brought out a painting containing likenesses of several of the old officers of the court of Nepaul, and compared them with those present, but only found the likeness of one of the chieftains now before them," &c. The Nepaulese, entering upon the subject of their mission, requested a letter to the English that would induce them to quit Nepaul. The Chinese rejoined, " You have already told us that the English first entered your country for the sole purpose of establishing a warehouse there, and upon what plea can we attempt to re- move merchants, for such people are not molested in any country whatever ?" One of the Sirdars answered, " If they were merely merchants, it would be of no consequence, but they are soldiers and commanders, and what connexion have troops with merchants ?" The Tseankeun re- sumed, " The English have written to inform us that they sent their resident with your own con- sent ; of what then have you to complain ? As to what your rajah stated about the English having demanded of him the roads through Bootan, with the intention of penetrating into China, it is false ; and if they had any such views, they would find less circuitous routes." The Sirdars remained perfectly silent, and the Tseankeun then addressed himself in a strain of irony to Runbeer. " You Gorkhas think there are no soldiers in the hills but AVGHANISTAUN. 101 what are in Nepaul. Pray at what do you num- ber your fighting men ? and to what amount do you collect revenue'? The latter I suppose cannot exceed two lacs !" Runbeer replied, that the number of the soldiers was about that mentioned by the Tseankeun, and that their revenue amounted to about five lacs of rupees per annum. " You are indeed then," said the Tseankeun, " a mighty people," &c. They were dismissed without ac- complishing the object of their mission. Unable to ward off the infliction of a British resident, and unwilling to break off their connexion with the Chinese government, the envoys returned to Cat- mandhoo little satisfied with their reception, and apparently harbouring some vague apprehensions of the design of the " Cheen Mah^a Rajah." These seem to have been subsequently strengthened, for not long after, we find the Nepaulese minister applying to the British resident for a promise of support in the event of an attack from the Chinese. The establishment of a resident, a British officer, at the court of a prince who owed allegiance and paid homage to the court of China, was a source of considerable vexation to them ; the recognition of their supremacy was in a manner compromised, and they were quite prepared to act on the prayer of the Gorkhas, and to use their best endeavours to procure the withdrawal of the newly appointed resident, provided this could be accomplished with- out their committing themselves with the EngHsh, or placing their government in a position which might on a future day lead to collision. Accord- ingly, in the December following, we hear of a deputation of fifty Sirdars from the Sikkim Rajah, escorting a letter from the Tseankeun and his col- 102 INDIA AND leagues, to the Governor-General, together with a box of presents. After stating the high degree of satisfaction they had derived from the frank expla- nation of the Governor-General, their despatch pro- ceeds as follows : " His inaperial nnajesty, who, by God's blessing, is well informed of the conduct and proceedings of all mankind, reflecting on the good faith and wis- dom of the English Company, and the firm friend- ship and constant commercial intercourse which has so long subsisted between the two nations, never placed any reliance on the calumnious imputations put forward by the Gorkha rajah." The letter con- cludes with these words : " You mention that you have stationed a vakeel in Nepaul ; this is a matter of no consequence, but as the rajah, from his youth and inexperience, and from the novelty of the cir- cumstance, has imbibed suspicions, if you would, out of kindness towards us, and in consideration of the ties of friendship, withdraw your vakeel, it would be better ; and we should feel inexpressibly grateful to you." The Governor-General replied by pointing out the necessity of stationing an officer at head-quarters, who could always be ready to afford explanations upon matters which might otherwise lead to mis- understanding, and create ill-will. He attributed the late war to the absence of such a person, and then continued : " The habits of the borderers, both of the Nepaulese and the British territory, are rough and violent, hence frequent outrages may occur ; but if there were stationed at Catmandhoo any accre- dited agent of the Emperor of China, to whom this government could with confidence recur upon all matters of dispute arising between it and the AVGHANISTAITN. 103 Nepaulese, we should be relieved from the necessity of keeping a resident there at a considerable expense. As the case actually stands, the presence of a British officer is the main security we have for avoidino- differences ; this officer will be instructed to confine himself to the single care of preserving harmony between the two states, and to abstain from all other interference in the internal or foreign affairs of Ne- paul." The last proposition was received with dissa- tisfaction ; in reply, " We advert," say they, " to that part of your letter which desires us to urge our august sovereign, the Emperor of China, to the ap- pointment of a minister at Catmandhoo, to whom your people and those of Nepaul might refer their affairs, and thus prevent disagreements. Be it known to you, that the Gorkha Rajah has long been a faithful tributary of the Chinese government, and refers him- self to it whenever occasion requires. There is there- fore no need of deputing any one thither from this empire : besides, by the grace and favour of God, his majesty, possessing the sovereignty of the whole kingdom of China, and other parts, does not enter the city of any one without cause. If it so happen that his victorious forces take the field, in such case, after punishing the refractory, he in his royal cle- mency restores the transgressor to his throne. We have not thought it bur duty to represent the point to the court of China, as the matter in question is opposed to the custom of this empire. The fre- quenters of the port of Canton, which lies within our territory, can inform your lordship that such is not the custom of China ; for the future, a proposition of this nature, so contrary to usage, should not be introduced into a friendly despatch." June 21st. " The contemplation of the anomalous 104 INDIA AND nature of our government, the entire absence of all community and identity of interests between the government and its subjects, cannot fail to create impressions, calculated to convince the most scep- tical mind, that our existence depends exclusively upon the character of our rule, and the energy of our measures. So far as the first is concerned, it is of so mixed a nature, having so much to elicit feel- ings of unthankfulness and a desire for change in the minds of our subjects generally, that it becomes a perplexing and difficult matter to decide whether the great mass of the people would derive benefit or sustain injury by our removal. The evil that exists under the exclusive nature of our system is prolific in engendering every feeling prompting to desire a change. The consequence is, that restlessness, dis- content, and a desire for change may be considered to pervade the whole extent of our dominion, from the Sutledge to the sea, and from the Indus to the Berhampooter, whilst beyond these limits we are looked upon with strong feelings of envy, distrust, and apprehension. Hence we may fairly infer, that the internal and external feeling bear that affinity towards each other which would readily subdue every obstacle tending to prevent the coalescence of our enemies and our subjects for the subversion of our power." Monday, June 18th. — " An envoy from the Ne- paulese court, Runbeer Singh, passed through La- hore on his way to Kandahar." August 30th. — " Upon the question of encamping a British army at Cabul — of extending our boundary not to, but beyond the Indus — we have not sufficiently recovered from our surprise at the boldness of the step to be able to look at it with calm consideration. AVGHANISTAUN. 105 If we proceed to Cabul, we must maintain ourselves there. We cannot afford a retrograde movement through any emergency of circumstances. If we are forced to recede one step, we must recede two, and so on till the mighty spirit which overspreads India, shrinks back to the narrow dimensions of the barrel, and the empire is reduced to its original ele- ment of a factory. At Cabul we must be every thing or nothing. In no transaction in which we mingle in India can we any longer act a secondary part. Are we prepared for that extension of our con- nections which shall enable us to keep due watch and ward at the gate of India ? We have not the Indus for our boundary, and yet we seem about to involve ourselves in a world of new combinations and in- trigues beyond that limit, with the Panjab in our rear, more consolidated than any native power since the days of Hyder, and with two unsubdued hollow allies on our northern and eastern frontier to take advantage of the first embarrassment to pour a stream of desolation on our provinces." October 25th. — " The real object of the present expedition is to establish a lasting barrier against hostile intrigue and aggression by the military oc- cupation of Cabul ; that is, to baffle the intrigues and arrest the aggression of Russia, and to antici- pate her views by the extension of British influence in Central Asia. The necessity of this movement is indicated by the ill-concealed designs of our real opponent. " When we look at the strides which our power has taken in India we draw back with astonishment. It is but eighty-two years since our only possession in Bengal consisted of a miserable fortification, garrisoned by seventy European soldiers. Now the army of the Bengal Presidency is about to 106 INDIA AND cross the Indus to establish the just influence of the British government upon a proper footing, amongst the nations of Central Asia. Ii is only eighty years since Clive, havino- recovered that fortification, and after having given the English anew a local habita- tion and a name in Bengal, uttered this memorable sentence : ' We cannot stop here, we must go for- ward!' — and forward indeed we have gone, year after year, east, west, norih, and south, till in the year 1838, the safety of our empire in India demands that an army should march five hundred miles beyond the Indus to raise the siege of Herat'h !" November 22d. — " We must be in possession of Rangoon and all Pegue before the first of May next." " There are other considerations besides the de- fence of the provinces exposed to Birmese invasion, which must go to the formation of a correct judg- ment on this subject. We know that the publica- tion through the Durpun* (for a copy of which the court of Catmandhoo subscribes,) of the contempt with which the English have been treated from time to time by the Chinese authorities at Canton, has produced a very unfavourable impression on the minds of the Nepaulese, and led them to believe that we are not after all the first power in Asia. In a higher degree must the conduct of the Bir- mese court towards us, if it be not apologized for or resented, contribute to shake that empire of opinion which we hold in India. The safety of the empire demands that we should vindicate our honour, by pacific means if possible, but still that we should vindicate our honour from those insults, which are offered only under the idea that our * A native paper. AVGHANISTAUN. 107 empire has passed its prime, and that our sun is setting in the East." November 22d. — " It may be doubted if at any time since we took possession of territory in India, such deep and dangerous disaffection has prevailed as exists at present. Our unsparing taxation, our long continued and augmenting exhaustion of the resources of the country, our resumptions of rent- free lands, our reduction of establishments and of public expenditure, our schemes of conversion under the mask of education and the pretext of non-inter- ference with religious ceremonials, have spread and are spreading throughout India universal alarm and discontent. The political horizon is equally overcast. Both on the west and the east, the faint flashes of an approaching tempest have already been displayed, and if the storm once burst on either quarter, it will immediately fall upon us with fury from the other. Engaged in hostilities with Persia backed by Russia; with Ava, which has already insulted us ; and with Nepaul, preparing, if report be true, most vigorously, to recover its lost power and possessions, we shall soon be entangled in a plentiful crop of domestic embarrassments, sown by our own blindness, faithlessness, and fanati- cism. This is not the language of an alarmist ; it is prompted by the contemplation of our proceedings in India, and by authentic information from the natives themselves of the sentiments which they entertain ; it is the language also of five out of six of the Company's servants, who have recently re- turned from India — of men who have used the opportunities which they enjoyed of observing the signs of the times ; it is the language of all who are capable of connecting causes and consequences, 108 INDIA AND and who know that insidiousness begets suspicion, and that intolerance engenders hate." November 29th. — *' What is now to be done? Shall we proceed onward and secure the key of India, or leave our frontiers exposed to the designs which have been so unequivocally developed during the present year, and which the prophetic genius of Napoleon predicted twenty-five years ago? It is clear beyond a doubt that after the demonstrations which have been made this year in Central Asia, our possessions are not safe while the passes of Cabul are in possession of a power whose hostility has been unreservedly manifested towards us. "The course of political intrigue, of which Herat'h was only the index, seems to force upon us the folicy of still moving forward if we would not shrink back to the limits of a factory." December 20th. — " The Jami Jehan Noma is a native paper, taken in by most of the native chiefs of India. It is frequently full of treasonable remarks. In the number for November 4th, 1838, it was men- tioned that * The Mussulmen of Cabul had assembled to the number of 400,000 and were about to invade Hindostan, and that the English army destined for the conquest of Cabul had been assembled at Loodiana, and would march in a few days. The resident of Dehly was further reported in this paper to have remitted the tribute due from several rajahs, and to have got them to sign several new articles by way of treaty.' "When the rajah heard this he observed, that the English gentlemen must be in great alarm and trepi- dation at the overwhelming numbers of the Shah of Cabul, since it has come to this pass that they were now remitting their claims of annual tribute, and AVGHANISTAUN. 109 entering into new treaties. Some of the people in the city and elsewhere observed, that the people of Hindoosthan were ever given to oppose established authority; and if the Jami Jelian JVoma, which was taken in by most chiefs of Hindoosthan should give such versions of the force and people of Cabul. and of the expedition to that place, the chiefs of Hin- doosthan and its ignorant people would, on hearing such exaggerated statements,/ee/5^/// more inclined to witfidrawfrom their allegiance and former contracts," &c. &c. March 14th, 1839.—" A Persian army laid siege to Herat'h with the avowed intention of marching into India, and the approach of Russian influence, like that of a portentous comet, began to disturb all the rela- tions of our Indian empire." Blackwood's Magazine, Dec. 1838. — "We have reduced the European force which in 1827 was 33,000, to twenty-five regiments, mustering little more than 19,000 men, and the native army which, in the former year, was 260,000 to 155,000. All this we have done in the full knowledge of the truth, em- phatically impressed upon our government by our greatest commanders in India, even at the moment of the most signal triumphs, that without an adequate proportion of European troops, which should never be less than a third or a fourth of that of the soldiers (native), it was impossible to expect success in India ; and that our empire in the East, on the appear- ance of the first European power, would be seriously endangered. Forgetting that there can be no in- herent loyalty in a black Mussulman, or Hindoo, to a white Christian and distant crown, we have done rnuch to dissolve the firm bond of union that has hitherto held us together — that of permanent self- 110 INDIA AND interest. Influenced by a blind and false spirit of economy, the Indian government has successively reduced the allowances, retired pensions, and other advantages accruing to the officers, European and native, as well as privates of the native army, so that not only has the attachment of these actually in the ranks been seriously injured and weakened, but the disposition to enlist under British colours throughout the whole peninsula, been chilled and discouraged to a most alarming degree. " The way in which it was all along foreseen Russia would act, would be, to go on step by step, consolidating her power by successive acquisitions, and taking care always to precede her legions by subsidiary treaties and alliances, which might enable her to march through all the intervening country as through her own dominions, and pour at last with an accumulating force on the northern provinces of Hindoost'han. It is in vain to say that it is impossi- ble for the Russian troops to march down from Russia to India, when the British troops are prepar- ing to march from Delhi and Agra to Cahul and Candahar, a distance of two thousand miles. When our troops arrive in those regions, they will have gone more than half way from Calcutta to the shores of the Caspian, from which the Russian troops have to set out. They are setting out avowedly to anticipate the Russians in the possession of Cabul, and in all probability to assist the Shah of Herat'h in his resistance to the Russian guile and Persian forces." Tuesday, May 2d, 1839.— "There can be no doubt that the dangers which have called the army of the Indus into the field are altogether without precedent since we first planted our standard in India. On every previous occasion our difficulties arose from AVGHANISTAUN. 1 1 1 combinations within the Indus ; at the present crisis we are threatened with invasion by a conjunction of powers beyond that river, organized by a great European power of vast resources. Emissaries have been dihgently employed through the length and breadth of Hindoostan, in sowing the seeds of disaffection among our own subjects, in rousing to hostility the minds of our subordinate allies, and in turning the eyes of India to the grand expedition as coming down from the west to put an end to our empire. These circumstances of unexampled diffi- culty called for instantaneous action, and for the adop- tion of a new and original plan of policy," &c. &c. "If the dangers which threatened the empire had been imaginary, if they had even been exaggerated, there might have been some ground for censuring an expedition which involved us in the web of Avghan politics. But the dangers ivere palpable and immi- nent" &LC. " Russia would have been on the banks of the Indus with all the rabble of Western Asia at her heels. The Seiks, already endowed with a military education rather advanced, are too powerful to agree to their becoming docile instruments to the East India Company ; and the proof of the spirit ihat ani- mates them is the news recently brought, that the passage of the Panjab has been refused to the Eng- lish. The alliance of the English with the aged Maha Rajah, can only be looked on as a forced alliance, destined to be broken as soon as a rupture can take place without compromising the safety of the empire of Runjeet'h Singh. In the interior of India the English have before them none but a hos- tile population, which support with impatience a foreign yoke : the people have gained nothing by the English occupation of the country. National Indus- 112 INDIA AND try has been completely ruined ; the inferior classes are impoverished by the effort of the EngHsh, whose machinery excludes all competition," &c. — Augs- burg Gazette of 24th of January. July 11. — " When the accredited agent of Russia was at our gates, and the most vaunting reports were industriously spread that the hordes of Central Asia were marshalled by Russia, and were about to pour down on the plains of India, and when these boasts had begun materially to shake the confidence of the subsidiary chiefs throughout India, it was time to make some demonstration." July 18. — " If any doubt had ever been entertained of the ambitious projects of Russia, in reference to the East, they must be at once dispelled by a perusal of the last note of that court. In it Russia assumes to have an equal interest with England in the affairs of Avghanistaun ; after having herself so far inter- fered with this state, lying at so great a distance from her frontier, as to guarantee the transfer of Herath to the Kandahar chiefs, calls upon England to avoid all interference with it, though it lies upon our border; and its emissaries have endeavoured to spread disaff^ection through our empire. We can all remember the electrical effect produced on all minds and all interests by the raising of the siege, and the retirement of the Persian army. The funds rose four per cent ! The march to Cabul appears now to have been a measure indispensably neces- sary to the security of the British empire in the East." October 31st. — The Kurnoul Conspiracy. — "The capture of Kurnoul has brought to light a conspiracy against the British government which may well fill the mind with astonishment. Kurnoul is a state under the Madras Presidency, of small dimensions AVGHANISTAUN. 113 and limited revenues, the only remaining indepen- dent Mahomedan principality in the south. In consequence of information of treasonable prepa- rations, the British troops were sent ; the fort was occupied without opposition, and presented nothing beyond the ordinary means of defence. Upon more minute investigation, however, the zennanah or fe- male apartments, were found to contain between four and five hundred pieces of ordnance, chiefly of brass, some concealed under ground, others immured in walled-up chambers, together with whatever was necessary for the most extensive military operations. One hundred pieces of ordnance were mounted and ready for action. Some of them had been cast in forms of surpassing beauty and exactness. The zennanah likewise contained many furnaces, some of which had been recently worked. All their pre- parations, so far beyond the resources of this petty state, and the intellect of its chief, manifest une- quivocally a wide-spread conspiracy to annihilate the British authority in the south. In the silence and secrecy of the zennanah, shielded from intrusion by the inviolability of its character, have the dark designs of this combination been carried forward. The cannon, according to the description given, must have been cast under European superinten- dence. The expenses of these warUke preparations must have been furnished by more powerful agents; the contrivance and execution of this vast plan, in impenetrable obscurity, though under the very eye of government, must have been managed by wiser heads and deeper politicians than the foolish rajah^ who is now a prisoner to his own troops, through having suffered their allowances to run into arrears. It is for government to unravel the ramifications, 8 114 INDIA AND and trace the origin of a plot, which would proba- bly have been consummated as soon as the Madras Presidency had been deprived of its strength by the despatch of an army to the Birmese empire. " The discoveries have been almost exclusively confined to the nawaub's zennanah, which proves to be a perfect arsenal on a most extended scale ; and you will stare to read that there have been found concealed in various ways, underground and in godowns whose doors and entrances had been built up, between four and five hundred pieces of artil- lery, of which fully one hundred are in such a state of equipment as to be ready for active service in the field at a few days' warning,