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Chapter 34 – Lord Auckland’s Administration – the Afghan Expedition, 1838–1842

Meeting with Runjeet Sing – The march, 1838

The army of the Indus, as it was designated, assembled at Ferozepore on the banks of the Sutlege towards the end of November. Before it proceeded on its route there was a grand meeting between Lord Auckland and the lion of the Punjab, then tottering on the brink of the grave; but he still exhibited in his countenance his habitual calmness of design, and his single eye was still lighted up with the fire of enterprise. The assembly, which was second in magnificence only to that of Roopur, was diversified by showy pageants, gay doings, and feats of mimic war. As the army was no longer bound for Herat its strength was reduced by one half, and the Commander-in-chief, Sir Henry Fane, who had consented to take the command in person when it was destined to march into Central Asia and baffle the designs of Russia, declined to head a diminished force simply to seat Shah Soojah on the throne of a better man. The Bengal column started from Ferozepore on the 10th of December, under the command of Sir Willoughby Cotton, with about 9,500 men of all arms, 30,000 camels, and 88,000 camp followers. The force raised for the immediate service of the Shah, which was designated his army, though commanded by Company’s officers, and paid from the Company’s treasury, consisted of about 6,000 men. The Bombay troops under the command of Sir John Keane amounted to 5,600, making a total of 21,000 soldiers. The political charge of the enterprise was entrusted to Mr. Macnaghten, with whom it originated, and he was officially styled the Envoy and Minister at the court of Shah Soojah, the Shah being the puppet, and Mr. Macnaghten the

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king. The most direct route to Cabul from the banks of the Sutlege lay through the Punjab, a distance of about five hundred miles, but “our ancient and faithful ally” refused to grant a passage through his dominions to a body of 50,000 men, and it became necessary to take a circuitous route of a thousand miles down the Indus to Bukkur, and thence northward up to Candahar and Cabul.

Treatment of Sinde, 1839

There was likewise another reason for adopting this devious course in the determination which was formed to exact a heavy contribution from the Ameers of Sinde. The conduct of the British Government on this occasion has been the subject of much controversy. On the one hand, it is asserted that the counsellors of Lord Auckland, haunted by the Russophobia which had given birth to the expedition – though the Russians had retired with the Persians from Herat, and were nowhere in Central Asia – seemed to consider that in their efforts to provide for the safety of the British empire in India, they were at liberty to suspend every consideration of justice, and that they imposed an iniquitous treaty on the Ameers. On the other hand, Captain Eastwick, who assisted in negotiating the treaty, considered it an indispensable measure of self-defence, forced on us by the machinations of the Ameers. They had plundered our stores of grain and taken every step, short of open hostilities, to obstruct the operations of the British Government. They had treated the British representative with gross indignity, and even menaced him with assassination; and, with a full knowledge of the hostile attitude the King of Persia had assumed towards us, threatened to form an alliance with him, and received an envoy from his court in their capital. In the treaty concluded with them in 1832 it was stipulated that no military stores should be transported through the province by land or by water, but the Bengal column marched through northern Sinde, and Sir John Keane, who had landed with the Bombay force at Kurrachee, was moving up from the south. Colonel Pottinger was instructed by the Governor-General to

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inform them that “the article of the treaty which prohibits the using of the Indus for the conveyance of military stores must necessarily be suspended during the course of these operations; and that at this important crisis not only those who have shown a disposition to favour our adversaries, but those who display an unwillingness to help us, in the just and necessary undertaking in which we are engaged, must be displaced, and give way to others on whose friendship and co-operation we may be able implicitly to rely.” The province of Sinde was formerly a dependency of the Dooranee empire, and had paid tribute whenever the rulers of Cabul were strong enough to enforce it. No tribute had been transmitted for forty years, and the Ameers were virtually independent. They were now required to pay up the arrears of revenue which was assumed at twenty-five lacs of rupees to a ruler who had been an exile from the throne of Cabal for thirty years. But when Colonel Pottinger presented this demand, he was confounded by the production of two releases from all further claims of every description which the Shah had written in two Korans, and signed and sealed, when he had prevailed on them to pay him three lacs of rupees in 1833. The Ameers said they were confident the Governor-General did not intend to make them pay over again for what they had already bought, but he was of opinion that it was not incumbent on him to enter into any formal investigation of this plea, and Mr. Macnaghten remarked that rather than allow the grand enterprise of restoring Shah Soojah to be postponed by any opposition from the Ameers, it would be better to let loose 20,000 of Runjeet Sing’s troops upon their capital. It was likewise determined to impose a subsidiary force on them for which they were to provide three lacs of rupees a-year. The Ameers naturally demurred to these exactions, but Colonel Pottinger was desired to inform them that “neither the ready power to crush and annihilate them, nor the will to call it into action, were wanting, if it appeared requisite, however remotely, for the safety or the integrity of

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the Anglo-Indian empire or frontier.” To coerce them into submission, Sir John Keane marched with the Bombay army up to the neighbourhood of the capital, and it was resolved to strengthen the arguments of the negotiators by sending down the Bengal column to join him. The order to march was received with enthusiasm, for the expedition held out the prospect of military distinction and still more of a rich haul of prize money in a city which was reputed to contain eight crores of rupees. Awed by the presence of a British force, the Ameers yielded to necessity, signed the subsidiary treaty and paid up the first instalment of the demand. The Bengal troops retraced their steps with a feeling of bitter disappointment to Bukkur; and the sepoys, notwithstanding their superstitious objection to crossing the Indus, passed over without any hesitation, and for the first time erected the flag of England on the opposite bank.

Advance of the Army, 1839

The disasters of the force began as soon as it was across the Indus. The mortality among the draft cattle, on which the subsistence of the army depended, became portentous, and it was deemed advisable for Sir Willoughby Cotton to push on at once with the Bengal column through the sandy desert of Cutch Gundava, a hundred and forty miles in extent. Lord Auckland’s secretaries had assured the officers of the army that the march to Cabul would be a military promenade, and the assertion was now to be exemplified. As this arid waste furnished little water and no pasturage, the camels died by hundreds, and the Belochee freebooters, who were in fact the only produce of the soil, hovered round the camp and never lost an opportunity of pillaging it. After a march of sixteen days the army reached Dadur at the mouth of the Bolan pass, the southern entrance into Afghanistan, with provisions on the beasts of burden that had survived sufficient only for a single month. The troops were six days defiling through this terrific gorge. There was no opposition from the mountaineers, but the flint stones lamed the camels, and the want of pasture and fatigue disabled the artillery

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horses; the mountain paths were strewed with abandoned tents, equipage and stores, and the little stream which flowed at the bottom of the ravine, was tainted with the carcases of animals. Emerging from this pass the troops entered the beautiful valley of Shawl, but though it was covered with vineyards and orchards, it could only furnish food for the army for a few days. No small portion of the stock of provisions had been lost with the cattle in the Bolan pass, and starvation stared the army in the face. Captain Burnes was sent back to Khelat to endeavour to conclude a treaty with Mehrab Khan, the independent ruler of Belochistan, with the object of providing for the immediate wants of the force, and securing the passage of future supplies through the pass. For this service the chief was offered a subsidy of a lac and a half of rupees a-year; but it was beyond his power to afford the relief which the pressing necessities of the army required. His territory was by no means fertile; the harvest of the preceding year had been deficient; the British troops and the swarm of camp followers had given the growing crops to their cattle, and wantonly wasted the water on which the fields depended for irrigation, and the Belochees themselves were living on herbs and grass. Mehrab Khan informed Captain Burnes that he had received the most tempting overtures from the Persians and Russians, but had determined faithfully to see the British army through the pass. His conduct was deserving of all praise; and it was owing entirely to his active agency, that the troops were enabled to traverse that fearful defile, when a word from him might have brought the expedition to a dead lock, and an unhappy termination.

Arrival at Candahar, 1839

On the 6th April, Shah Soojah’s force, with the Envoy and the Bombay army reached Quettah, the largest town in the district of Shawl, where Sir Willoughby Cotton was already encamped, and Sir John Keane assumed the command of the whole expedition. The troops were half mutinous for want of food; the loaf of the European soldier was diminished in weight, the native troops were reduced to a

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pound of flour a-day, and the camp followers to half that quantity. More than twenty thousand camels had perished, and it was necessary to push forward with all speed to Candahar. In the intervening space lay the Kojuck pass, scarcely less terrific than the Bolan, though not of the same extent. The batteries and the field pieces had to be dragged up and lowered down its appalling precipices by the European soldiers, pressed by hunger, parched with thirst, and consumed by incessant fatigue. Such was the military promenade to Cabul. As the Shah approached Candahar, the Barukzye princes, betrayed by their chiefs and followers, whom British gold had been employed to corrupt, fled to the west, and he entered the city without opposition on the 25th April. Some of the inhabitants shouted welcome, others strewed flowers in his path, and the curiosity of the people gave such an appearance of enthusiasm to his progress, that the sanguine Envoy assured Lord Auckland that he had been received with feelings bordering on adoration. But curiosity soon subsided, and when, a fortnight after, a gorgeous ceremonial was got up in the plain for his installation, which was celebrated by a salute of a hundred and one guns, not a hundred of the citizens were present, and the acclamations were confined to his own retainers.

Ghuzni, 1839

The army, still on reduced rations, was obliged to remain inactive in Candahar for ten weeks till the crops had ripened, and it was unable to resume its march before the 27th June. Two hundred and thirty miles distant from Candahar, and ninety from Cabul, lay the great fortress of Ghuzni, from which Mahmood had issued more than eight hundred years before to plant the standard of the crescent on the plains of India. It was deemed absolutely impregnable, and regarded as the pride of Afghanistan. Ryder Khan had been sent by his father, Dost Mohamed, to garrison it with 3,000 men, and he had taken advantage of the detention of the army at Candahar to strengthen the fortifications and to provision the fort for six months. It was found to be strong both by nature and by

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art. The parapet which rose sixty or seventy feet above the plain, and the wet ditch, presented insurmountable obstacles to an attack by mining or escalade. Sir John Keane had listened to the voice of those who asserted that it was a place of no strength, and consequently left behind him the battering train which had been dragged with infinite labour through the Bolan and Kojuck passes. To attempt to breach the walls with the puny six and nine pounders which accompanied his force was idle, and there was every prospect of the total collapse of the expedition. A nephew of Post Mohamed, however, was induced by the offer of a large bribe to desert his countrymen and turn traitor, and from him the engineers obtained an accurate description of the condition and character of the defences. All the gates had been built up with the exception of one, and Captain Thomson, the chief engineer, assured Sir John Keane that the only mode of attack which presented any chance of success was that of blowing it up, and then rushing into the fortress. Nine hundred pounds of powder were accordingly packed in bags under his direction and conveyed in silence and darkness to the gate. Fortunately, the night was gloomy and tempestuous, and the attention of the garrison was drawn off by a demonstration from the light batteries in other directions. The powder exploded; the massive barricade was shivered to pieces, and heavy masses of masonry and beams came toppling down in great confusion. Col. Dennie of the 13th Light Infantry rushed in with the storming party over the debris; the enemy, on hearing the explosion, hastened to the breach, and for some time there was a mortal struggle, but three hearty cheers, while it was yet dark, announced to the General, who was watching the result from a neighbouring height with deed anxiety, that the fortress was in our hands. At dawn of day, the British ensign was planted on the proud citadel of Ghuzni by Ensign Frere. This exploit cost the army a hundred and eighty in killed and wounded, of whom eighteen were officers; and it was the only military operation between Ferozepore and Cabul. A day or two after, a body

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of ghazees, or Mohamedan fanatics, endeavoured to enter Shah Soojah’s encampment in the hope of assassinating him, but were repulsed and pursued by Captain Outram, who captured their holy standard together with about fifty prisoners. When conducted into the presence of the Shah, they gloried in their attempt and reviled him to his face for having brought the infidels into the country, while one more ferocious than the rest stabbed one of his attendants. He immediately ordered the whole number to be executed, and they were deliberately hacked to pieces in cold blood outside his tents.

Arrival at Cabal, 1838

The fate of Ghuzni opened up the road to Cabul, and filled Dost Mohamed with consternation. While the army under Sir John Keane was advancing towards the capital, another army under Prince Maur, the son of the Shah, and Colonel Wade was approaching it from the eastward by way of Jellalabad. Distracted by this double peril, the Dost called his officers together, and with the Koran in his hands implored them to make one bold stand like brave men and true believers. “You have eaten my salt,” he said, “these thirteen years; grant me but one request in return. Stand by the brother of Futteh Khan while he executes one last charge against these Feringee dogs: in that onset he will fall; then make your own terms with Shah Soojah.” But there was neither fidelity nor spirit left in them, and Dost Mohamed, finding the struggle hopeless, parked his guns at Urgundeh, in the vicinity of Cabul, and turned with a handful of followers to the regions of the Hindoo Koosh. As soon as the intelligence of his flight reached the army, it was resolved to follow him without a moment’s delay. Captain Outram and nine other officers, animated with a lofty spirit of adventure, started in pursuit of him, with a small body of cavalry and several hundred Afghan horse commanded by Hajee Khan Kaukur. For six days they gave neither Dost Mohamed nor themselves any rest, night or day, and would in all probability have eventually overtaken him, but for the treachery of the Afghan Hajee. He had deserted the Dost for

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the Candahar rulers, and then deserted them for Shah Soojah on the receipt of a large bribe, and now determined to abandon the cause of the Shah on the first opportunity. He consented to accompany the expedition only that he might defeat its object. He pretended illness, and always contrived to remain a march or two behind; he threw impediments in the way of every movement, and so effectually delayed the pursuit, that on reaching Bameean the Dost was found to have gained a start of thirty miles and passed beyond the confines of Afghanistan. The old traitor was sent to Hindostan, and passed many years in durance at Chunar. This enterprise was in keeping with Captain Outram’s character, but it was more remarkable for its chivalry than its prudence. The treachery of the Hajee, which prevented the encounter of the parties, was, after all, a fortunate circumstance, since he and his Afghan horse would not have failed to join the Dost in attacking the feeble and jaded party of officers, in which case not one of whom would have escaped to tell the tale. On the 7th August, 1839, Shah Soojah, still resplendent with jewels, though without the Koh-i-noor, was conducted with martial pomp through the city of Cabul to the Bala Hissar, but there was no popular enthusiasm, and the procession resembled a funeral. The citizens came to their thresholds to gaze, not so much on the exiled and restored king, as on the cavalcade of infidels parading their streets, upon whom they did not fail to pour the most hearty maledictions,

Colonel Wade and Timur, 1838

Three weeks later, the Shah was joined by his son Timur, who advanced on the direct line from Peshawar to Cabul in company with a Sikh contingent. He was totally destitute of character or spirit, and the entire responsibility of the expedition devolved on Colonel Wade, the able and experienced political agent at Loodiana. The prince’s army, composed of a very miscellaneous assortment of about 4,000 recruits, but paid by the Company, reached Peshawar on the 20th March. A month after, the Raja Golab Sing, and Runjeet Sing’s grandson, Nao Nihal

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Sing, joined the camp with about 6,000 Sikh soldiers. A march through the Khyber pass to unknown dangers was equally unpalatable to both men and commanders, and it was not difficult to discover pretexts for delay. Insubordination is the normal condition of all Indian armies, even under their own princes, and the Sikh army at Peshawar was no exception to the general rule. Soon after its arrival one regiment turned out the colonel and the officers, shotted the guns and calmly awaited the progress of events. This mutiny was no sooner hushed up, than another broke out in the Goorkha corps, which struck its tents, and marched out of the camp with drums beating and colours flying to Peshawar. There the men took up a position a little distance from the fort, and were permitted to remain in a state of open revolt while a report of their conduct was sent on to Lahore. After four months had been wasted at Peshawar through these and other impediments, the expedition entered the Khyber on the 20th July. The Afredies were prepared to resist its progress with vigour, but Colonel Wade defeated their project by crowning the heights and turning their flank, a manoeuvre by which these defiles were probably for the first time opened by the use of steel and not of gold. Dost Mohamed had sent the ablest of his sons, Akbar Khan, to oppose the progress of this force, but he was recalled to the defence of the capital as Sir John Keane advanced from the south, and Colonel Wade, after having mastered the Khyber, reached Cabul without difficulty.

Retention of the force in Afghanistan, 1839

The object of the expedition had now been attained by the substitution of a friendly for a hostile power in Afghanistan, and the period had arrived, in accordance with Lord Auckland’s manifesto, for the withdrawal of the British troops. It was evident, however, that there was no national feeling of attachment to the throne of the Shah, and that without the continued support of British bayonets it must eventually totter and fall. This truth had dawned on Mr. Macnaghten on his reaching Candahar, when

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he wrote to the Governor-General that we must be prepared to look on Afghanistan for some years as an out-post yielding nothing, but requiring much expenditure to keep it in repair. Lord Auckland was equally convinced of the fact, and on the 20th August recorded his opinion that to leave the Shah without the support of a British army would be followed by his expulsion, and ensure a palpable failure of our plans, which would reflect disgrace on Government and become a source of danger. Our difficulties, as the Duke of Wellington had predicted, began as soon as our military success was complete. They commenced with the occupation of Cabul on the 2nd August, 1839, and they culminated on the 2nd November, 1841, in the insurrection which annihilated the army. To support the authority of the Shah it was determined to leave a body of about 10,000 troops to garrison Cabul, Jellalabad, Ghuzni, Candahar, and other places. General Wilshire who commanded the Bombay force was directed on his way back to inflict a signal retribution on Mehrab Khan, the ruler of Belochistan, for having withheld supplies from the army on its march, and neglected to restrain the Belochee freebooters, in violation of the treaty which Captain Burnes had forced on him. In both cases he set up a valid plea of inability, and it is impossible to exonerate the proceedings which were pursued against him from the charge of vindictiveness and injustice.

Capture of Khelat, 15 October 1839

Khelat was found to be a very strong fortification, and the Belochees fought valiantly for their chief and their country. After the gates had been demolished by cannon, they continued to dispute every inch of ground, and Mehrab Khan fell with eight of his principal officers gallantly fighting in its defence. A relation was placed on the vacant throne and three of the most productive districts were annexed to the dominions of Shah Soojah, a most ungrateful return for the hospitable reception which Mehrab Khan had given to that monarch when he was obliged to fly from Afghanistan in 1833.

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Honours, 1840

The expedition was as fertile in honours as it was barren in military achievements. It was a measure of ministerial policy, condemned by the general voice of society, in England and in India, and it was considered politic to make the most of the success which at first attended it. Lord Auckland was created an earl, and Sir John Keane, who had done nothing but leave his battering train behind him when he ought to have brought it on to Ghuzni, a baron with a pension of £2,000 a-year for two lives. Mr. Macnaghten, Colonel Pottinger, and General Wiltshire were made baronets, and Colonel Wade a knight; but Captain Thomson, whose exertions at Ghuzni saved the campaign from an ignominious failure received only a brevet-majority and the lowest order of the Bath, and at once retired from the service. The Shah was, moreover, advised to solicit permission of “his sister the Queen of England,” to institute an order of knighthood, and the officers who had borne him on their shoulders to the throne were decorated with the evanescent “order of the Dooranee empire.”

Death of Runjeet Sing, 1839

Runjeet Sing died as the expedition was leaving Candahar, on the 27th June, 1839, at the age of fifty-seven, the victim of the excesses in which he had long been accustomed to indulge. The last attack before that which terminated his life deprived him of the use of speech, but his active mind was as eager as ever in public affairs. He pointed with his finger to the quarter from which he desired information, heard the reports read, and dictated his orders by signs to his faithful secretary. He possessed the same grand creative genius as Sevajee and Hyder Ali, though like them he was unable either to read or write. It was his extraordinary talent alone which reared the edifice of Sikh greatness, and if he had not been hemmed in by the irresistible power of the Company, he would undoubtedly have established a new and magnificent empire in Hindostan. He succeeded to the leadership of his tribe at the early age of seventeen, when the Punjab was distracted by the conflicts of its various independent

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chieftains. He left it a compact and powerful kingdom, strengthened by the annexation of some of the richest provinces of the Dooranee empire. The military array of the country at the beginning of his career consisted only of a body of matchlock horsemen, who, though as renowned in India as the Mahratta or Mysore horse, were not adapted for any regular and extensive system of warfare. By indefatigable exertions, by the adoption of every improvement he could heal of, and by incessant and successful expeditions, he succeeded in creating an army 80,000 strong, with 300 pieces of cannon, superior in discipline, valour, and equipment to any force which had ever been seen in India under native colours. His annual revenue was gradually augmented till it reached two crores of rupees. He exhibited to an extraordinary degree the oriental passion for hoarding, and considered it a sacred duty to allow no day to pass without adding a sum, greater or less, to his accumulations. It is related that when he sometimes sat silent and moody at his evening durbar, and the courtiers enquired the cause of his depression, he replied, “it is near sunset and not a rupee has been sent to the mootee mundeer, or the treasury, to-day.” Twenty voices exclaimed with joined hands, “Maharaj, my money is yours,” and he immediately required them to verify the assertion by affixing their signature to a note of hand, which they were punctually obliged to honour the next day. The sum which he was enabled to amass exceeded twelve crores of rupees, of which he is said to have directed that forty lacs should be distributed in charity after his death. He bequeathed the celebrated Koh-i-noor which now adorns the diadem of England to the shrine of Juggunnath, and he left the crown to his imbecile son, Kurruck Sing, but the real power of the state was shared between his grandson, Nao Nihal Sing, an impetuous youth of eighteen, and Dhyan Sing, one of the crafty and ambitious Jummoo brothers, who contrived to appropriate the office of minister to himself. Runjeet Sing was the only man in his court friendly to the British alliance. During the expedition

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to Afghanistan, he placed the resources of the Punjab unreservedly at the disposal of the Governor-General, and it was not till after his death that the hostility of the Lahore cabinet was openly developed. It was then that the Sikh officers on the frontier entered into a hostile correspondence with the disaffected in Afghanistan, and intrigued against the British Government with the tribes who held the command of the passes. The ministers at Lahore remonstrated in a lofty tone against the constant movement of British armaments and convoys through the Punjab, asserting that there was nothing in the treaties between the two states to sanction the conversion of their country into a highway for British troops; and it required the extraordinary tact of our representative, Mr. George Clerk, to prevent a direct collision. This opposition indefinitely augmented the perils of our position in Afghanistan, and exasperated Sir William Macnaghten to such a degree that throughout the ensuing year, he never ceased to press on Lord Auckland the necessity of “curbing the Sings,” as the Sikhs were termed, “and macadamizing the Punjab, and annexing Peshawar to the dominions of Shah Soojah.”

Russian complaints against Khiva, 1840

Soon after the occupation of Cabul, the Russophobia which incessantly oppressed the minds of Sir William Macnaghten, Sir Alexander Burnes, and many others, was raised to fever heat by the report that a great Russian expedition was marching on Khiva, which they considered the immediate precursor of a movement towards the Indus, though the intervening country of more than a thousand miles consists of deserts without water, and mountains covered with perpetual snow. Khiva, the celebrated Kharism of early Mohamedan history, lies to the south of the sea of Aral, on the banks of the Oxus, towards its estuary. With the exception of the land on the banks of that river and the oasis of Merv, the country presents the aspect of a continuous waste, unrelieved by mountains, rivers, lakes, or forests. The population does not greatly exceed a million, and consists chiefly of Oosbegs. For half a century, the Khan, or ruler,

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had been in the habit of committing depredations on Russian caravans, attacking Russian out stations on the sea of Aral, and kidnapping Russian subjects whom he sold into slavery. After repeated remonstrances from Orenberg, a Russian envoy was sent to demand the release of the slaves, but the barbarian chief placed him in confinement. The Emperor then tried the experiment of retaliation, and in 1836 laid an embargo on all the property and the subjects of the Khan within his dominions; but scarcely a hundred of the captives were liberated in the course of two years. The Emperor at length resolved to despatch a military expedition against Khiva, to fulfil the imperative obligation of protecting the lives and liberty of his own subjects.

British diplomacy in Central Asia, 1839–40

This expedition had a twofold motive. In his Simla manifesto, Lord Auckland stated that the object of the expedition across the Indus was “to give the name and just influence of the British Government its proper footing among the nations of Central Asia.” The ambitious spirit of Sir William Macnaghten was prepared to carry out this novel and adventurous policy to an extent which alarmed even his own Government Soon after the occupation of Cabul, he sent a regiment of infantry and a troop of horse artillery to Bameean in the Hindoo Koosh, under the direction of Dr. Lord, the political agent, who pushed forward the force still farther into the Oosbeg district of Syghan, and installed a chief of his own selection in the government of it. This aggressive movement, for which there was no occasion and no excuse, appeared to indicate a settled design to establish British influence and power in Turkistan, and spread alarm among its different rulers. Major Todd, who had been sent as the British representative to Herat, was diligently employed in improving its fortifications, and had, moreover, sent a communication to the Khan of Khiva, offering him British friendship and alliance. The Khan, threatened with a Russian invasion, had also sent an envoy to Herat to make proposals for a treaty. Major Todd then deputed Captain Abbot, one of his

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assistants, to Khiva to persuade the Khan to propitiate the Government of Russia by liberating the captives; but he exceeded his instructions and proposed a British alliance offensive and defensive. The proposal was immediately disavowed by the Government of India, and he was recalled, but the repudiation was not generally known, and the influence of this rash procedure remained without correction. Colonel Stoddart had also been sent on a mission to Bokhara by Mr. McNeill. These simultaneous movements, military and diplomatic, at Syghan, and at Khiva, at the source and the mouth of the thus, at Herat, and at Bokhara, raised a suspicion at St. Petersburg that the object of England was not simply to prevent the advance of Russian influence to India, but to introduce British influence into Central Asia, and the Emperor took his measures accordingly. The Russian expedition to Khiva had been timed to leave Orenberg in April, 1840, but the Emperor was induced to hasten its departure by the rapid establishment of British power in Afghanistan, and the activity of British diplomacy beyond its limits, and it was ordered to proceed at the beginning of winter in November, 1839. The manifesto which announced it, not only enumerated the grievances which the Russians had suffered from the Khivans, but adopting the language of Lord Auckland’s proclamation, stated that the expedition “was intended to strengthen in that part of Asia the lawful influence to which Russia has a right, and which alone can ensure the maintenance of peace.” In the Russian account of it, the object was affirmed without disguise to be “to establish the strong influence of Russia in the Khanats” – as the principalities of Khiva, Bokhara, and Kokan are styled – “and to prevent the influence of the East India Company from taking root in Central Asia.” The two European powers, destined eventually to divide political influence in Asia between them, were in fact, at this period, jealous of each other’s progress, and resorted to the fatal expedient of fitting out armaments to counteract it. “If we go on at this rate,” said Baron Brunow, the Russian Minister in

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London to Lord Palmerston, “the Cossack and the sepoy will soon cross bayonets on the Oxus.” The Russian expedition proved a total failure. The army consisting of 3,000 foot, 2,000 horse, and twenty-two field guns, with 10,000 camels, started from Orenberg in November on a march of a thousand miles to Khiva; but the attempt to traverse the desert between the Caspian sea and the sea of Aral in the depth of winter, when the ground was covered with snow to the depth of many feet, and not a blade of grass was to be found for several hundred miles, was an act of infatuation. After advancing to the centre of this scene of desolation, the expedition completely broke down, and the General prudently retraced his steps to Orenberg, with the loss of the greater portion of his materiel and his men. Major Todd, after the recall of Captain Abbot, deputed Captain Richmond Shakespeare on the same errand to Khiva. He reached it at the critical period when the Khan was overwhelmed with a dread of Russian vengeance, which served to strengthen our representations, and induced him to liberate four hundred Russian captives, whom Captain Shakespeare had the pleasure of conveying to Orenberg. The Russian Government felt the same irritation at the intrusion of British agency and influence into any of the provinces of Turkistan, as the British Government had felt at the interference of Russia at Cabul and Candahar. The liberation of the captives was attributed by the Russians to the terror of their power, and every idea of obligation to the British officer for his officious services was distinctly repudiated.

The Bala Hissar and the cantonments, 1839

To return to Cabul. The first and most important question which arose upon the determination to hold Afghanistan with a British force, was the housing of the troops, more especially during the approaching winter. The Bala Hissar, or citadel of Cabul, stood on a hill, and completely commanded the city. It afforded accommodation for 5,000 men, and if well provisioned and fortified could be held by a thousand men against any force or skill which Afghanistan could bring against it. Captain

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Havelock had remarked soon after the occupation of Cabul, “Here then all depends in a military point of view on a firm hold of the Bala Hissar. It is the key of Cabul. The troops that hold it ought not to allow themselves to be dislodged but by a siege, and they must awe its population by their mortars and their howitzers.” Lieut. – now Sir Henry – Durand, the engineer of the force, strongly urged the occupation of the upper portion of it by the troops. They were accordingly cantoned there, and preparations were made to provide cover for the military stores and ammunition, and to improve the fortifications, which would soon have become impregnable; but Shah Soojah maintained that it was his palace, and that the privacy of his zenana would be disturbed if any portion of it were occupied as a barrack. Some of the native chiefs likewise raised objections to the establishment of a British garrison within its walls, and for the very reason which rendered such a measure indispensable to the safety of the army. The works were therefore discontinued, and the troops lodged in temporary houses at the base of the citadel. The Shah and the envoy took up their residence for the winter in the milder climate of Jellalabad. On their return to the capital in the spring, the Shah demanded the whole of the Bala Hissar for his seraglio, consisting of a hundred and sixty females, and Sir W. Macnaghten yielded to his importunity, contrary to his own better judgment, but not without the concurrence of the Commander of the forces, Sir Willoughby Cotton. The British troops were therefore turned out into cantonments erected in the plain in the most exposed position which could have been selected. This fatal weakness on the part of the Envoy eventually entailed the loss of his own life, and the annihilation of the army. The whole of the Afghan policy from first to last was a succession of unexampled blunders, but the crowning act of folly was the evacuation of the Bala Hissar to make room for the women of the king.

Herat, 1840

On the arrival of the army at Candahar the Envoy despatched Major Todd as political agent to Herat to

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conclude a treaty with Shah Kamran, to conciliate his vizier, Yar Mohamed, and to improve the fortifications of the city. To maintain British influence at that court, money was sent in profusion from Cabul; but Yar Mohamed took great offence at the earnest efforts of Major Todd to put down the execrable traffic in slaves in which he was largely engaged, and he likewise professed to be alarmed at the political movements of British agents in Central Asia. While receiving constant supplies of money from the British Government he opened a correspondence with the nearest Persian governor, and offered to place the whole country at the disposal of the king. Incensed at these acts of perfidy, Sir William Macnaghten urged the annexation of Herat to the territories of Shah Soojah, but Lord Auckland, believing that Yar Mohamed might have been induced to apply to Persia, in consequence of the diplomatic movements of our officers in the neighbouring countries, determined to overlook his past delinquencies, and make another experiment on his gratitude. The supply of guns and muskets, of ammunition and money, was consequently renewed, and with such prodigality as to terrify the financial authorities in Calcutta. This lavish expenditure resulted only in more audacious intrigues with Persia. Kamran addressed a letter to the king, in which he styled himself the faithful servant of the Persian crown, and proposed a united effort to expel the infidels, whom he said he tolerated only for their money. Under this fresh provocation, Lord Auckland’s mind began to waver regarding the expedition to Herat, which Sir William continued to press with unabated earnestness; but he was now in Calcutta at his own Council board, and the Commander-in-chief demonstrated to him that the present strength of the Indian army was altogether inadequate for any new undertaking. The expedition was therefore definitively negatived, notwithstanding the unabated importunity of the Envoy, who pronounced the conduct of the Governor-General to be “drivelling beneath contempt,” and “sighed for a Wellesley or a Hastings.”

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State of the Government of Afghanistan, 1840

The conviction daily became more confirmed that Shah Soojah not only had no hold on the affections of his subjects, but that he was an object of intense aversion to them. The Afghans whom he had appointed to the administration of districts were venal and oppressive, but the main cause of his unpopularity was the infidel aid on which he rested for support. It could not be concealed from the Afghans that while he was the nominal sovereign, the country was in truth ruled by the Envoy, and that all real power was in the hands of the foreign unbelievers, whose presence in the country was felt to be a visitation like the plague. Nor had the Shah the means of satisfying the expectations of his needy aristocracy, even if they had been moderate. The most productive provinces which once belonged to the crown of Cabul had been annexed to the Punjab by Runjeet Sing, and the remaining districts yielded only fifteen lacs of rupees a-year, which were scarcely sufficient to pay the priesthood, and to meet the expenses of the Shah’s soldiers and his own household. Among the British officers entrusted with the management of districts, were the honourable names of Pottinger, Rawlinson, Todd, Leech, and Mackeson, but there were others who brought odium on the Government by their haughty bearing and their wanton and arbitrary proceedings. The first mission to Cabul had not inspired the Afghans with a very exalted idea of English morals, and, after the occupation of the country, the undisguised licentiousness of some of the officers, and more especially of several of those who, for obvious reasons, took up their residence in the city, the invasion of the harems of the chiefs, and the dishonour inflicted on their families, brought down curses on the “infidel dogs.” Everything concurred to render our presence hateful and our position precarious. During the twenty-seven months of our occupation, the Government was a government of sentry boxes, and it was sustained only by the gleam of British bayonets. The country was garrisoned, not governed, and we were reposing

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on a smothered volcano. Yet so confident did Sir William Macnaghten feel of the security of our situation that he sent for Lady Macnaghten to Cabul. His example was followed by other officers, and the guardianship of ladies in an enemy’s country, hundreds of miles from our own frontier, was added to the other embarrassments of our position.

Movements of Dost Mohamed, 1840

The first disturbance broke out in the Khyber pass where, within a few weeks of the occupation of Cabul, the mountaineers massacred a large detachment of troops and carried off their baggage in triumph. Through the length and breadth of the land, from the neighbourhood of Jellalabad to Khelat, violence was the rule, and report the exception. One of the most serious revolts occurred in Belochistan, in the middle of 1840, when the whole province was wrested from us, the chief whom General Willshire had chosen was deposed, and the son of Mehrab Khan seated on the throne. General Nott was obliged to march down from Candahar to restore our authority in this important principality, which though wild and thinly populated extends from the banks of the Indus to the confines of Persia. The capital was recaptured and our power re-established. But the great source of anxiety throughout the year 1840, was connected with the movements of Dost Mohamed. After his flight from Cabul in August, 1839, he was hospitably entertained by the chief of Khooloom beyond Bameean. He was then induced to accept the invitation of Nusser-oolla, the Ameer of Bokhara the “commander of the faithful,” as he was styled, but who was for more than thirty years the most brutal tyrant in all Transoxiana. Dost Mohamed and his sons were treated at first with some show of kindness, but it was not long before they were subjected to a rigorous and painful captivity, which was subsequently relaxed on the intercession of the King of Persia, and on the appearance of British troops at Syghan. Meanwhile, Jubbur Khan, after wandering from place to place with the females of the Dost’s family, was persuaded to entrust them to the protection of the British Government. The confidence thus

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reposed in our good faith by a people proverbial for perfidy, was no ordinary tribute of honour to our national character. The ladies and children were conveyed to Hindostan and treated with every consideration. The Dost at length succeeded in making his escape from Bokhara, and returned to Khooloom, where he was, received with open arms by the chief, who placed the resources of the province at his disposal. The Oosbegs crowded to his standard, and in a short time he found himself at the head of a force of 6,000 or 8,000 men, with which he resolved to cross the Hindoo Koosh, raise the war cry of the Prophet, and, gathering strength from the unpopularity of the Shah and his infidel supporters, march in triumph to Cabul. An entire company of Captain Hopkins’s Afghan regiment deserted to him with their arms and accoutrements, under the guidance of their native commandant, Saleh Mohamed. The British outposts which had been rashly planted in these mountain stations without any support were withdrawn in haste. Cabul was thrown into a state of commotion, and the inhabitants commenced closing their shops and removing their families. The representative of the Lahore Government began openly to intrigue against the Shah. The region north of Cabul was ripe for insurrection. “The Afghans,” wrote Sir William, “are powder, and the Dost is a lighted match;” but the alarm subsided as speedily as it arose. Brigadier Dennie, who had been sent to reinforce Bameean, came up with the Post on the 18th September, and with a mere handful of troops obtained a decisive victory over the whole host of Oosbegs.

Surrender of Dost Mohamed, 1840

The Dost, after this defeat, moved into the Kohistan, or highlands north of the capital. The chiefs had recently returned from the presence of the Shah, to whom they had taken an oath of fidelity on the Koran, but they received their former master with cordiality, and prepared heartily to espouse his cause. Sir Robert Sale was sent into the hills to attack them and had signal success at Tootundurra, but was soon after defeated in an injudicious

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attempt to capture a fort. Dost Mohamed, after flitting about the country for two or three weeks, came down into the Nijrow district, a few miles from the capital, which again presented a scene of fermentation. The British officials were filled with consternation; guns were mounted on the citadel to overawe the town, and the Envoy talked of “the disgrace of being locked up in Cabul for some time.” Sir Robert Sale, who had been incessantly tracking the Dost, came upon him on the 2nd November in the valley of Purwandurra. The heights around were bristling with an armed population, but he had only about two hundred ill-mounted, though strong and sturdy Afghans with him. He had no intention to attack his pursuers, but the 2nd Native Cavalry galloped down upon him and he resolved boldly to meet the charge. Raising himself in his stirrup, and uncovering his head, he called upon his soldiers, in the name of God and the Prophet, to aid him in driving the accursed infidels from the land of the faithful. The cavalry troopers fled from the field like a flock of sheep, while their European officers fought on with the courage of heroes, till three of them were killed and two wounded. Sir Alexander Burnes, who had accompanied the force, sent a hasty note to Sir William Macnaghten to announce the disaster and to assure him there was now no course left but to fall back on Cabul, and concentrate all the troops there. The communication did not, however, reach him before the following afternoon, when he was taking a ride; but before he had recovered from the surprise it occasioned, a horseman rode up and accosted him with the words, “the Ameer is at hand.” “What Ameer ?” asked the Envoy. “Dost Mohamed Khan,” was the reply, and immediately after, the Ameer presented himself, and having dismounted, placed his sword in the hands of Sir William and claimed his protection. “He had felt,” he said, “even in the moment of victory, that it would be impossible for him to continue the contest. He had met his foes in an open field, and discomfited them, and the time had arrived when he could claim their consideration with

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dignity.” Sir William returned his sword and begged him to remount, and they rode together to the cantonments, where, with that ease which is characteristic of the natives of the East, he entered into free conversation, recounted his wanderings and sufferings during the last fifteen months, and made numerous enquiries regarding his family and relatives. His frank and princely bearing in the hour of adversity created a strong feeling of sympathy and admiration among the officers who crowded to listen to him, which was in no small degree heightened by the contempt they felt for the wretched puppet in the Bala Hissar. Sir William Macnaghten, when bewildered with the anxieties to which the approach of the Dost to Cabul gave rise, had said in his letters to Calcutta that no mercy should be shewn to the man who was the author of these distractions, and he had hinted at the proposal of setting a price on his head; but the magnanimous confidence of the Dost called forth all the noble feelings of his nature. In announcing his voluntary surrender to Lord Auckland, he said, “I hope he will be treated with liberality. His case is not parallel with that of the Shah. The Shah had no claim on us; we had no hand in depriving him of his kingdom, whereas, we ejected the Post, who never offended us, in support of our policy, of which he is the victim.” He was escorted to Calcutta, and the liberal sum of two lacs of rupees a-year was assigned for his support. He became the honoured guest of the Governor-General at the festivities of Government House, where he amused himself with testing the skill of Miss Eden at chess.

This collection transcribed by Chris Gage
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