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AN

J

LIVES OF INDIAN

OFFICERS.

BY

Sir J?^W. KAYE.

IN TWO VOLUMES— Vol. 11.

NBW EDITION.

LONDON : W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13, WATERLOO PLACE,

PALL MALL, S.W.

1889. {Aii rights reserved,)

#

S//i ALEXANDER BURNES. [1800— iSaa

in his native town. He had gone out to India poor, and he had returned rich, whikt still in the very prime of his life. He had returned to take a distinguished part in public affairs, with thirty or forty years of good life and of good ser\'ice still remaining in him. It was a natural and a laud- able ambition that he should seek to represent his native town in the great imperial Parliament, and to do for it and its people all the good that lay in his power j so he canvass- ed the borough and its dependencies in the Hberal interests, and in 18 18 was duly returned.*

The success of Joseph Hume was great encouragement to the youth of Montrose. He had taken his first start from a very humble beginning, and he had risen solely by the force of his own personal energy. Might not others do the same ? Moreover, the success of Joseph Hume was some- thing more than an encouragement to the young men of the borough. It was an assistance to them. He had become an influential member of the Court of Proprietors of East India Stock, and he had, therefore, 'interest at the India House.* It must be admitted that for very many years what was familiarly called ' borough-monger- ing,* was the main cause of so many doughty young Scots finding their way into the Indian services. Practically, this was a happy circumstance. At all events, it bore good fruit. But for this, the Company's army might have been wanting in that muscular sinewy strength imparted to it by a constant recruiting from the middle classes of

* The Montrose Burghs then included Montrose, Brechin, Arbroath, Ben'ie, and Aberdeen. Mr Hume had previously repre- sented Weymouth in Parliament.

i&oo— 20.J THE BURNES FAMILY. 3

the North. The Scotch member, in esse or in posse, may have thought about nothing but his seat ; but it was often his good fortune ' to entertain angels unaware,' and to count among the happy circumstances of his life that he had ' sent to India * a Malcolm, an Ochterlony, or a Munro.

Some of these happy circumstances were recalled with pleasure and with gratitude at the close of a well-spent life by Mr Joseph Hume. Of one of them I am now about to write. In the first quarter of the present cenmry there dwelt at Montrose a family bearing the name of Bumes. The family was of the same stock as that from which had sprung the inspired ploughman of Ayrshire, though the two branches of the family were pleased to spell their names after different fashions. The grandfather of Robert Bums, the poet, and the grandfather of James Burnes, writer to the signet, burgess of Montrose, and head of the family of which I am now writing, were brothers. In the first year of the century, James Bumes married a daughter of Adam Crlegg, chief magistrate of Montrose, and in due course had fourteen children, nine of whom lived to be adults. Of these nine children the four eldest were sons. The first- bom was named James, after his father 5 the second Adam, after his maternal grandfather 5 the third Robert j and the fourth Alexander, after whom called I know not, but there could have been no better name for one who was destined to do great things in the countries watered by the Indus and bounded by the Caucasian range. He often used to say, in later days, that he found his name a help to him. [n Afghanistan he was always known as ' Sekunder Bumes,'

4 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [i8a>-aa

and Sekunder (Alexander) has been a great name in that part of the world ever since the great days of the Greek occupation.

Mr James Bumes was^ I have said^ a burgess of Mont- rose. He was a man greatly respected by the townspeople^ both for his integrity and ability^ and he came to be provost of the borough, and recorder or town-clerk. For many years he took an active part in the local politics of the place, and there were few places in which local politics occupied so much of the time and the thoughts of the good people of a country town. The influence of Provost Bumes was, of course, great in the borough. It was no small thing for a candidate for the representation of Montrose and its dependencies to have the Bumes interest on his side. He was not a man to forsake his principles for gain 5 but there was no reason why, with four stout clever boys pressing forward for employment, and eager to make their fortunes, he should not endeavour to turn his influence to good account for the benefit of his children. He was very useful to Mr Hume, and Mr Hume, in turn, was well disposed to be useful to the family of Bumes. In truth, the tide of liberal politics was somewhat high and heady at that time ; and even the children of the worthy burgess's household were no indifferent observers of passing events, but had their bursts of political excitement like their elders. The acquittal of Queen Caroline produced as great a fervour of exultation in that distant seaport town as it did in Westminster or Hanunersmith 5 and one of the Bumes boys, who had at a verv early age habituated himself to keep a diary, then

i8ao.] EARLY DA YS OF ALEXANDER BURNES. 5

recorded in its pages : ' November 14, 1820. News came of the rejection by the House of Lords of the Bill of Pains and Penalties against the Queen. No schooling on account of it • • • November 15. A most brilliant illumination took place in Montrose and the surrounding neighbourhood, on account of the glorious triumph the Queen had obtained over her base and abominable accusers. Many devices were exhibited, one in the Town-haU with a green bag all tat- tered and torn 5 in another window, a figure of the Queen, ymth the word '' Triumphant," and above it ''C. R." The display of fireworks was unlimited. Two boats were burn- ed, and some tar-barrels, and upon the whole it did great credit to Montrose.*

The vmter of this journal was Alexander Bumes, the third surviving son, then fifteen years of age, and a student in the Montrose Academy, the head-master of which, Mr Calvert, had something more than a local reputation as a distinguished classical scholar and a highly successfiil teacher — ^as men taught in those da)'s with the book in one hand and the scourge in the other. He was a clever, in some respects, perhaps, a precocious boy ; and had learnt as much in the way, bom of classics and of mathematics, as most pro- mising striplings of his age. He had read, too, some books of history, and a few of the masterpieces of English poetry. He belonged to a debating society, and was not altogether unskilled in disputation. Like other high-spirited boys, he had taken part in conflicts of a more dangerous character than mere conflicts of words, and fought some hard battles with the boys of the town. Altogether, though not to be

6 5/i? ALEXANDER BURNES, [1820.

accounted a prodigy, he was a youth of high spirit and good promise, and had in him some of the stuff of which heroes are made.

But I can find nothing in the record of Alexander Bumes*s early life to warrant the conclusion that the bent of his mind towards foreign travel was then in any way dis- cernible. What httle I can find in his papers rather bean* the other way. I have before me a collection, in his own f^Titing, of the speeches he delivered at the ' Montrose J uvenile Debating Society,* the thesis of one of which (pro- posed by himself) is, ' Whether reading or travelling is most advantageous for the acquisition of knowledge ? * To this the 'juvenile debater * replied : * My opinion on the present subject is, that reading is the most advantageous for the ac- quisition of knowledge.' And then he proceeded to illus- trate this opinion, by reading to the meeting an interesting extract from the recently published travels of the African traveller, Belzoni. Having done this, he said : ' Now, to have it in our power to amuse ourselves any night we please with the book which contains all these disasters, without the labour which has been encountered, shows in the clearest light the advantages derived from that most delight- ful and pleasing amusement, reading.* This is charmingly illogical. The young debater forgot, in his enthusiastic ad- miration of the book that had given him so much pleasure, that there could have been no ' reading * in this case if there had been no ' travelling.* Certainly it would have been difficult to cite a more unfortunate illustration of the views of the juvenile speaker. It is possible that when, in ifter life, he came to gather up his ideas a little more com-

f 820— 91. j EARL Y DA YS.

pactly^ he bethought himself of the mistake he had made^ and remembered that it is an essential condition to the * acquisition of knowledge * from books of travel like Bel- zoni*s^ that there should be Belzonis to write them.

Neither, indeed, is there anything to indicate that the desires of yoimg Alexander Bumes at that time turned towards a life of military adventure in the eastern or the western worlds. Of the hundreds of cadets who year after year went out to India at that time in the service of the East India Company, only an exceptional few were moved by any impulses of their own to enter the Indian army. The choice was commonly made for them as a matter of convenience by their parents or guardians ; and the case of Alexander Bumes was no exception to the rule. The success of Mr Hume was that which decided the choice of the worthy burgess of Montrose, for it afforded at once a great encouragement and a material aid. The eldest hope of the Burnes family, James, was destined for the medical service — that service in which Mr Hume had so rapidly made a fortune — and was pursuing his studies in London, with a view to an Indian career. Adam, the second, was training for the law in his native burgh. And Alexander, -by the assistance of Mr Himie, was to be provided with a cadetship, as soon as he was old enough to take up the ap- pointment. When, therefore, the young student was within a few weeks from the completion of his sixteenth year, he was sent up to London in a Dundee smack j and having arrived there on the 14th of March, 1821, he was on the following day introduced by Mr Hume to Mr Stanley Clerk, a member of the Court of Directors, and was told

8 Sm ALEXANDER BURNES. [iSai.

that his name had been duly entered for a cadetship of in- fantry on the establishment of Bombay. He spent two months in Liondon^ studying \mder the well-known Oriental professor, Dr Gilchrist, and watched over by Mr Joseph Hume, who gave him good advice of all kinds, and acted as his banker \ and then on the i6th of May — ^his birthday — he attended at the India House and formally took the oath of allegiance.

It was a matter of pleasant family arrangement that the eldest brother, James Burnes, who had been appointed an assistant-surgeon on the Bombay establishment, should sail in the same vessel with Alexander 5 so they embarked together, early in June, on board the good ship Sarah, Of this voyage there are abundant records in the young cadet's journal, many passages of which exhibit considerable discern- ment of character, and no slight powers of description. But it must suffice here to state that, after an vmeventfiil voyage, the Sarah arrived at her destination, and that, on the 21st of October, 1821, these two young Montrosians found them- selves on the beach of Bombay, with very little money in their pockets, and with very slender interest j but with stout hearts; clear heads, and that determination to make for them- selves careers in the public service which, in the days of the East India Company, carried so many members of our middle classes in India straight on to fortune and to fame.

The brothers were soon separated. On the 13 th of November, James Burnes was gazetted to do duty as an assistant-surgeon with the Artillery at Maloongah. Four

x32r.] FiRST YEAR IN INDIA,

days before this> Alexander*8 name had appeared in Greuera^ Orders, by which he was posted to do duty with the ist Bat- talion of the 3rd Regiment of Native Infantry at Bombay. On the 19th, he recorded in his journal that he had ' com- menced his military career,* and appeared on parade. From that day he made steady progress in his profession. He applied himself sedulously to the cultivation of the native languages. He had continued on board ship the studies which he had commenced under Dr Gilchrist in London, and now he supplemented his literary pursuits by making and steadily adhering to the rule, to converse with his native servants only in Hindostanee 5 and on the 8th of December he wrote in his journal : ' Ever since I ordered my servants to address me in Hindostanee I find my improvement very great, and I am persuaded that there is no method more effectual in acquiring the language than the one I am at present pursuing, for it unites the theoretical and the prac- tical. Having migrated from my own country, and being rather of a curious and searching disposition, I have begun to gain as much information concerning the manners, customs, laws, and religions of this people — a study not only amusing and interesting, but highly instructive; for what is it that makes a man, but a knowledge of men and manners ? * There was nothing which a man might not achieve in India, who thus set himself to work in the right way. There was proof of this even then before the young ' unposted ensign.' He had carried out with him, as most young men carry out, letters ol introduction to the Governor and other influential people of the Presidency. The Go- vernor at that time was Mr Mountstuart Elphinstone, whose

lo Sm ALEXANDER BURNES. [1821.

kindness and affability of manner won the heart of the young soldier at once. 'The Governor/ he wrote home to his family at Montrose, ' received us with great politeness, and invited us to the most splendid filte I had ever beheld, and did not behave in a " How do ? '* manner, but was extremely affable and polite, which, among a party of a hundred, and for the most part generals and great men, was a great deal. ... A few weeks ago a grand public ball was given to Sir John Malcolm, on his leaving India,* to which I had the honour of receiving an invitation j but where it came from I know not. It was, if anything, grander than Mr Elphin- stone*s fSte, and held in a house built for the purpose, about the size of the old Council House at Montrose, illuminated with lamps fi*om top to bottom.* There must have been something in all this greatly to inspire and encourage the young Scotch subaltern, for Malcolm himself had risen from the same small beginning, and now his name was in every man*s mouth, and all were delighted to do him honour. What might not any young Scot, with the right stuff in him, do in India ? In all directions there was en- couragement and assurances not likely to be thrown away upon a youth of young Burnes*s lively imagination. A Montrose man had sent him out to India j an Edinburgh man was now at the head of the Government of Bombay j a Glasgow man was Governor of the Madras Presidency j and now the son of an Eskdale farmer was receiving the plaudits of all classes of his countrymen, and returning for a while to his native land, a successful soldier and a successful statesman, amidst a whirl of popularity that * See ante^ Memoir of Sir John Malcolm, vol i. page 304.

i82i-a2.] FIRST YEAR IN INDIA, u

might have fully satisfied the desires of the most ambitious hero in the world.

But to yoimg Alexander Bumes the encouragements of the future were not greater than the consolations of the present. 'I like the coimtry amazingly,* he wrote to Montrose, 'and as yet am not at all desirous of a return to my own land. Here I have everything to be wished for — plenty of time to myself, a gentlemanly commanding officer, and several very pleasant brother-officers.* But he added, for thoughts of home were still pulling at his heart, ' how dearly should I like to see little Charley or Cecilia trudging into my canvas abode — ^but, ah ! that is far beyond probability. However, I may yet see Charley in India, for he seems a boy made for it.*

Thoughts of active service soon began to stir his mind. There was a prospect of a war with China, and the young soldier was eager to take part in it. 'There has been a most dreadful disturbance,' he wrote to his parents, on the 30th of April, 1822, ' between the powers of China and the East India Company within these few months 5 so all trade between these countries is now at a stop, and nothing seems more inevitable than war, for it is in everybody's mouth, and every person is anxious to go. I hope I may be sent. If I am not sent along with my regiment, I shall certainly volunteer 5 for if a man does not push on he will never see service, and, of course, will never be an officer worth anything. What will the poor old maids of Montrose do for want of tea ? * But the excitement passed away. There was no war. And so young Alexander Burnes fell back peacefiilly on his Oriental studies, and with such good

18 5/i? ALEXANDER BURNES. [x8aa

success, that at the beginning of May, 1822, he went up for an examination in Hindostanee, and found that he passed for an interpretership. 'I was so delighted,* he wrote in his journal, ' that I could scarcely contain myself.* A fortnight before, he had been posted to the 2nd Battalion of the nth Regiment of Native Infantry, but as the inter- pretership of that regiment was not vacant, he applied, without success, to be removed to another corps. Any dis- appointment, however, which he might have felt about this was soon removed by the necessities of action j for a few days afterwards his regiment was ordered to Poonah, which a few years before had been the capital of the Peishwah, and was still in the bloom of its historical associations. It was with no common interest that he repeatedly visited ,the battle-field of Khirkee. ' The plain where the cavalry of the Peishwah charged I galloped over,* he wrote in his journal, ' and I can scarcely imagine a better place for cavalry to act than this,- for scarcely a nullah intersects it.' *

The time passed very pleasantly at Poonah. ' It is a most delightftd place,* he wrote, ' and I like the Deccan amazingly. I have joined the 2nd Battalion of the nth Bomba> Native Infantry, which in point of discipline is not surpassed by any regiment in the service. ... In point of officers there was never, perhaps, a more gentlemanly and pleasant set of men assembled together in an Indian Native CJorps — ^in a word, I have got into a regiment that delights me, and naturally makes my time pass delightfiiUy. . . .* Governor Elphinstone was then at Poonah, contributing by his hospitalities to the general happiness, and stimulating

* See anUf Memoir of Mountstuart Elphinstone^ vol. L

iSaa— 33.] AT POONAH. 13

the youth of the station, by his example, to deeds of heroic sportsmanship. Here yoimg Bumes fleshed his maiden spear during a hog-hunt of three days* duration. Here, too, he began the study of the Persian language. ' I have been strenuously advised to begin Persian,* he wrote to his friends at Montrose, ' as it will improve my Hindostanee, and, per- haps, add greatly to my future prospects in India ; so I have commenced it.' And he prosecuted the study with such good effect, that, after a few months, he was able to derive intense gratification from the perusal of the Persian poets. Before the end of the month of September he thus pleasantly reported his progress : ' My bedroom is small, and brings often to my recollection my old little closet in the passage, for as it is my study I spend a great deal of time in it, and have managed to scribble pieces of poetry on its walls also 5 but they are now of a different language, for I have got quite enamoured of Persian poetry, which is really, for sound and everything, like a beautifid song — instead of Lallah Rookh in the English, I have got a Lai- lah Rookh in the Persian — at least a much more beautiful poem.*

In December the regiment quitted Poonah en route for Surat. At Bombay, where they halted, Alexander Bumes again made a push for an interpretership, and this time with good success; for on the 7th of January, 1823, his name appeared in General Orders, gazetted as interpreter of the 1st £xtra Battalion, which happened to be posted at Surat. He was, with one exception, the only ensign in the Bombay Army who held such an appointment. This was great promotion 3 but in the following year a brighter

14 S/If ALEXANDER BURNES, [1833.

prospect still expanded before the young soldier. On the general reorganization of the army, by which each battalion was converted into a separate regiment, with a separate regimental statF, Lieutenant Bumes, then little more than eighteen years old, was offered the regimental adjutancy. The offer excited him greatly, and he wrote : ' Behold your son Alexander the most fortunate man on earth for his years! Behold him Lieutenant and Adjutant Burnes of the 2ist Regiment, on an allowance of from five hundred to six hundred rupees a month.' The appointment had been offered to him by his friend Colonel Campbell. ' He did not think,' wrote Burnes to Montrose, ' that I would accept the situation, for my life in India has been so much devoted to study, that he conceived, and correctly too, that I was aiming at some political situation. I soon unde- ceived him, by telling him that I found my abilities greatly turned to that direction, but that, nevertheless, I was ready for anything else. . . . No man in his sound senses would refuse a situation of fifty or sixty guineas a month.* * The breaking up of the old regiment was, however, a source of no little grief to him, and a like feeling prevailed among all the best officers in the army. ' I could little tolerate this,* said Burnes, 'for I had become in a great degree attached to the men 5 but I less regretted it as my brother- officers were all to accompany me.' This re-organization gave a blow to the discipline of the whole army, from which it never recovered.

* In this letter Alexander Burnes again urged his father to send out his brother Charles in the army, and undertook to guarantee th^ payment of all expenses.

1823.] STUDYING THE LANGUAGES. 15

From the journals which he kept in this year, a lively impression may be gained of the young soldier*s state of mind. A conviction was growing upon him that, notwith- standing early backwardness, there was some good cultivable ground in his nature, and that some day he would make for himself a name. He had conceived a desire to visit other Eastern countries, and was assiduously studying their lan- guages. Like many others at that dangerous period of dawning manhood, he was haunted with strange doubts concerning both his material and spiritual being, and fancied that he was doomed to die young and to lapse into unbelief. There are few earnest inquiring minds that have not been subjected to that early blight of scepticism- A few passages from his diary will illustrate all these mental and moral phases. ' July 24. ... I find it frequently the case that dull, or rather middling, boys at school shine more in the woilt than those who are always at the head, and exquisite

scholars I am the only illiterate man in my family

— all professions but me. Never mind — quite content. A soldier's life permits of much spare time, which I am improving.* ' September 2. I reckon three years more will make me a Persian scholar, and five more will give me a tolerable knowledge of Arabic. Before many more months elapse, I purpose making a visit to Persia, and, if possible, Arabia 5 that is to say, if my circumstances will allow, as I feel confident of remaining amongst the in- ferior class of linguists if I do not go to the country.* ' September 3. I have been ruminating on the probability of accomplishing the above project, and if I continue saving Jo rupees a month, as I do at present, I may in time ac-

i6 S//e ALEXANDER BURNES, ' .

cumulate something 5 but it is so expensive studying, that

that keeps me from saving what I ought I

expect to reach the height of preferment in this service, and only think my short Hfe will hinder me from it/

' September 4 If a speedy return to my native

land (say ten years) be not effected, I can entertain little hopes of living to an aged man. In constitution I may be robust, in body I am very weak, slender, and ill made, and if it be true, as I have often heard them say, '* I was bom before my time." This they tell me, and as my grandfather's house was the place of my birth, I begin to think so. If this is the case^ it accounts for my shape. I was very small when bom, and, indeed, so much so, that they baptized me three days after my birth, that I might not die nameless, which, according to superstitious people, \& bad. I am different from all around me. I dislike all gynmastic and athletic exercises. I like argument much — ^ jolly party only now and then 5 much study, and am very partial to history, but dislike novels extremely, even Scott's. My abilities are confined, but as my mind expands they seem to improve. I was very dull at school, and reckoned a dolt. I ought not to have been a soldier, although I glory in the profession, for I am too fond of pen and ink.' ' September 21. I have of late been deeply pondering in my own mind the strange opinions I begin to imbibe about

religion, and which grow stronger every day Would

to Grod my mind were settled on this truly important sub- ject ! Could I be convinced fully of it, I would not believe in a future state, but it is an improbable thing to imagine God has made man gifted with reason, after his own image.

i84i41 REGIMENTAL LIFE, 17

and yet to perish. It is raadness to dream of it. My ideas may be very barbarous, but I do not see that a man's hap- piness can be increased by his knowing there is a tribunal. .... I lead a happy life, much more so than the generality of my companions, but I entertain different ideas of religion daily, and am afraid they will end in my having no reli- gion at all. A fatalist I am, but no atheist. No, nor even a deist. No — what shall I call it ? — a sceptical blockhead, whose head, filled with its own vanities, imagines itself more capable than it is.* ' October 16. My second year in India being now on the eve of completion, I think it full time to remit money to my father in Europe 5 consequently sent a hoondee to Bombay for 246 rupees to Messrs R. and Co., which, with former remittances, makes up a sum somewhat short of a^jo. This I have desired to be transmitted home to my father directly, or to J. Hume, Esq., M.P., for him. ...... I am thinking within myself how very grati- fying this will be to my father, who could not certainly expect much from me, and particularly at present, when I am on reduced allowances.*

The power of gratifying this laudable desire to remit money to his family in England was well-nigh checked at the outset by what might have been a serious misadventure, for which he would have long reproached himself. In those days there was still a good deal of gambUng in the army, and in a luckless hour young Burnes was induced io play at hazard. He thus records the incident in his journal : ' October 17. "I have lost a day.** This day my feelings were put more to the test than any other day during my

existence. G. and H. called in upon me in the morning, VOL. II. a

i8 5/^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1823.

and as we are all very fond of cards, it was proposed by G. to play at hazard. I declined, on the plea, first, of its being daytime 5 and secondly, on its being too much of a gambling game for me. The first I gave up, being master of the house, and in the second I yielded, provided the stakes were low. A quarter of a rupee was proposed, and we got on very well for some time, till G., beginning to lose, went very high. This induced me also. I lost 1500 rupees, and it was on the increase every turn up of the cards. It was proposed at this time (it being past the difiner-hour) to give up after our rounds. H. and G. played, and I reduced it to about 800 rupees. My turn came, and I lost. I was upwards of 1000 rupees in arrear. G. proposed once more. I agreed. I gained from H. and G., and when it came to my turn I owed joo rupees. I dealt out the cards. G. gave me a card, and went jo rupees on ten cards at table, and lost 350 rupees.' The upshot of the game was, that Burnes regained his money, and found himself with a balance of 13 rupees in his favour- But he had won much more than this. ' I have got such a moral lesson,* he added, ' that I never intend handling cards at a round game for some time, and I am ashamed of myself, and shall ever be so. ^'IVe lost a day.** I could scarcely place the cards on the table, I got so nervous. No wonder. I had at that time lost my pay for half a year. Had I lost I joo rupees, where would my prospects of sending money to my dear father have been ? What is more than all, these gamblings derange my head and prevent me bestowing proper attention on my Persian studies.*

He gambled no more after this, but continued to apply

1824—25.] ON THE GENERAL STAFF, 19

biniself steady V to the study of the native languages and to his military duties ; and he soon made rapid progress in his profession. In 1825 there were threatenings of war with the Ameers of Sindh. There had been a repetition of those border forays which might have resulted in the devastation of Cutch, and a British force was equipped for the coercion of the marauders. To this force Alexander Burnes was attached as Persian interpreter, and he was afterwards appointed to the Quartermaster- (reneral's de- partment, which permanently removed him from the sphere of regimental duty. Writing from Bhooj to his early friend and patron, Joseph Hume, in July, 1825, he gave the following account of his condition and prospects : * ' You must yourself be well acquainted with the present state of India to the eastward, and I can give you no more favour- able accounts regarding the Bombay Presidency, as a

* This letter was written primarily to acknowledge the receipt of a letter of introduction to Sir David Ochterlony, which Mr Hume had sent to the writer. As illustrative of a passage at p. 593, vol. i. (Memoir of Sir Charles Metcalfe), the following may, perhaps, be read with interest : * I had the pleasure to receive your letter of August, 1824, enclosing one to Sir David Ochterlony, and beg leave to express my sincere thanks for the interest you have taken in my behalfl I took the earliest opportunity to forward it to the General, but his unfortunate quarrel with the Government regarding the propriety of reducing Bhurtpore has given him enough to do, and fully accounts for no answer being received. Sir David is much regretted, and -it seems to be the general opinion that it was a very impolitic measure to abandon the campaign when so overwhelming an army was encamped before the fort. Our misfortunes in 1805, when under the walls of Bhurtpore, are still fresh in the recollection of the natives, and this has given them, if possible, additional pre- sumption.'

20 S/J? ALEXANDER BURXES. W^i^

cessation of hostilities at Burmah can only be the signal for a declaration of war with the Ameers of Sindh, our north-western neighbours. I can, perhaps, inform you of some particulars which may prove interesting regarding this and the adjacent province of India. About four or ^\Q years ago the nobles of Cutch called in the British Government to assist them in deposing their Rao (King), who had rendered himself very odious by the most wanton cruelty. Their request met with the approbation of our Government ; the Rao was deposed, and his son raised to the musnud, with a Regency of five persons, of which the British Resident is one. A subsidiary force of two regi- ments was established, and the Cutch Durbar agreed to pay half. In April, 1825, a body of marauders invaded the province from Sindh, but they were not entirely natives of that country, many of the discontented of this province having joined them. Be it sufficient to say that there was little or no doubt of their having received great support from Sindh. They plundered the whole of the country around Bhooj, and, from the insufficiency of our force, actually cut up six hundred of the Rao*s horse within four miles of camp. There being little doubt but that Sindh was at the bottom of it, some time elapsed before any attempt was made to dislodge them, it being considered nrudent to wait the arrival of troops. Another native reg'ment and some regular cavalry have been added to the brigade j and Captain Pottinger, the Resident, has just told me that a letter has arrived from our agent at Hyderabad mentioning tiie march of a division of the Sindhian army, chiefly composed of Beloochees^ and amounting to four or

x8as] ON THE GENERAL STAF:'\ 21

five thousand men, and every hour confirms the report. A third treaty with this nation may be patched up, but a war is inevitable ere long, and the want of officers and troops

will be the cause of much expense to the Company

I am proud to say that the same good fortune which I had at the commencement of my career seems still to attend me, and that the late disturbances in Cutch have elevated me from the regimental to the general Staff, having been appointed Quartermaster of Brigade to the Cutch Field Force. If you were to inquire of me how this has come about, I could not tell you, for I hardly know myself. The Brigadier of the station (Colonel Dyson) sent for me while I was acting Adjutant in April last, and asked me if I would become his interpreter and Staff, vacating my own acting appointment under the hope of Government con- firming his nomination. As I was only an Acting Adjutant, I consented, and fortunately I am confirmed in one of the appointments, which makes my pay and allowances 400 rupees a month. I should have liked the interpretership, but as the Staff is 400 rupees alone, I am very fortunate, and have every probability of retaining the situation for a long time, although it is only styled a temporary arrange- ment. If Sindh is invaded, an officer in the Quartermaster- GeneraFs department has a grand field opened to him. My pecuniary concerns are thus in a very thriving way. I have already sent home 5^250, and have more at my com- mand. I am sS^oo better off than any of my shipmates, whose letters of credit were in general five times the amount of mine, but then I have been very fortunate. I am not indebted in any way to the Governor, and the

22 5/i? ALEXANDER BURNES. [1825.

Commander-in-Chief has deprived me of both Quarter- mastership and Adjutancy, when recommended both times by the Commanding Officer, and the latter time by a Lieutenant-Colonel even. I must confess that chance must have done much for me against such opposition, but I am also greatly indebted to Colonel Leighton, who has always stood by me/

In a later letter the story is thus resumed : ' I continued my study of the languages,* he wrote to an old schoolfellow in the West Indies, 'and mastered the Persian, which brought me to the notice of Government, and I was selected from the army to be Persian interpreter to a field force of eight thousand men, under orders to cross the Indus and attack the territory of Sindh, which is situated

at the delta of that great river The force to which

I was attached did not advance 5 the campaign terminated in 182J5 but during its continuance I had, in the absence of other duty, devoted my time to surveying and geography, and produced a map of an unknown track, for which Go- vernment rewarded me by an appointment to the depart- ment of the Quartermaster-General — the most enviable line in the service. It removed me for good and all, before I had been four years in the service, from every sort of regimental duty. I advanced in this department step by step, and was honoured by the approbation of my superiors. In 1828 they raised me to be Assistant-Quarter- master-General of the Army, and transferred me to head- quarters at Bombay, on a salary of eight hundred rupees a month. There I met Sir John Malcolm, of whom you may have heard. I knew him not, but I volunteered tci

1825—29.] IN THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT. 23

explore the Indus from where it is joined by the Punjab down to the ocean, and thus delighted the men in author- ity. I started at the end of 1829 on this hazardous under- taking, and after I had got half through it, was recalled by Lord Bentinck, as it would have involved political difficulties at the moment. I did, however, so much, that I blush to sound my own praises. The substantial part of them is, that they have removed me entirely to the diplo- matic line, as assistant to the Resident in Cutch, which is a foreign state, in alliance with the British, close on the Indus. It is difficult to draw a parallel between European and Indian situations \ but, if one is to be made, I am what is called Secretary of Legation, and on the high road, though I say it myself, to office, emolument, and honour. I have now briefly sketched out my career. My pursuits are purely literary, and confined to investigating the anti- quities of Asia and the wonders of this people. I have been tracing the magnanimous Alexander on his Quixotic journey to these lands 5 and I shall set out at the end of 1830 to traverse further regions, which have been untrod- den since the Greeks of Macedon followed their leader. Being an accredited agent of the Government, I have their support in all these wanderings 5 so you see that I have hung the sword in the hall, and entered the Cabinet as a

civilian My great ambition,* he said, ' is to travel.

I am laying by a few spare rupees to feed my innocent wishes, and could I but have a companion like you, how doubly joyous would I roam among the ruins of the capitol, the relics of classic Athens, and the sombre grandeur of Egypt! These, and all the countries near them, are in

24 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [1829—^

my mind's eye^ I think, I dream of them 3 and when I journey to my native land, my route will traverse them aJl. I purpose landing at Berenice on the Red Sea, and, follow- ing the Nile in its course across from classic to sacred lands, cross the plains of Syria and Mount Sinai 5 thence, by Asia Minor to the Hellespont and Greece, Italy, and merry France 5 and last of all to my native Scotia. I have enough of the good things of this life to start on this pro- jected tour, when my ten years of service are out — that is, on the 31st of October, 18,31.*

But it was ordained by Providence that his journeyings should be quite in a different direction. In the early part of 1830, a despatch arrived at Bombay, from the Board of Control, enclosing a letter of compliment from the President, Lord Ellenborough, to Runjeet Singh, the great ruler of the Punjab, together with a batch of horses that were to be forwarded to his Highness as a present from the King of England. It was necessary that the letter and the horses shoidd be forwarded to Lahore, under the charge of a British officer. Sir John Malcolm was at this time Governor of Bombay. He was full of enterprise and enthusiasm 5 he had himself been a great traveller ; and he was the one of all others to appreciate the achievements and to sympathize with the aspirations of such a man as Alexander Bumes. He accordingly recommended the young Bombay Lieu- tenant for this important duty, and the Supreme Govern- ment readily endorsed the recommendation. But although the man had been chosen, and chosen wisely, there was much discussion respecting the manner of the mission and its accompaniments, and very considerable official delay.

T830.] MISSION TO LAHORE, 25

* It is part of Sir John Malcolm's plan for the prosecution of my journey/ wrote Burnes to the family at Montrose, in September, 1830, ^that I quit Bombay before the Govern- ment make any arrangements for my voyage up the Indus to Lahore.* In these days we know every foot of the ground, and such a journey as Burnes was about to undertake belongs only to the regions of common-place 5 but when Burnes, at this time, wrote about ' the noble prospects which awaited him in being selected for a delicate and hazardous duty,* he by no means exaggerated the fact. He was emphatically the Pioneer, and he had to cut and clear his way through briary difficulties and obstructions which have long since disappeared. He was not merely sent upon a complimentary mission to the ruler of the Punjab 5 he was directed also to explore the countries on the Lower Indus, and to this end he was intrusted with presents to the Ameers of Sindh.*

* If I were writing history, not biography, I should comment upon the error of this. As it is, I cannot resist quoting the following from a minute of Sir Charles Metcalfe, recorded in October, 1830 :

* The scheme of surveying the Indus, under the pretence of sending a present to Runjeet Singh, seems to me highly objectionable. It is a trick, in my opinion, unworthy of our Government, which cannot fail, when detected, as most probably it will be, to excite the jealousy and indignation 6f the powers on whom we play it. It is just such a trick as we are often falsely suspected and accused of by the native Princes of India, and this confirmation of their suspicions, generally unjust, will do more injury, by furnishing the ground of merited reproach, than any advantage to be gained by the measure can com- pensate. It is not impossible that it may lead to war. I hope that so unnecessary and ruinous a calamity may not befall us. Yet, as our officers, in the prosecution of their clandestine pursuits, may meet with insult or ill treatment, which we may choose to resent, that result is possible, however much to be deprecated.' The sagacity

26 5/y? ALEXANDER BURNES, [1831.

But the Ameers were mistrustful of our designs. They be- lieved that Burnes had come to spy the nakedness of the land. With all the clearness of prophecy, they saw that for the English to explore their country, was some day for them to take it. So they threw all sorts of impediments in the way of Burnes*s advance. * We quitted Cutch,* he wrote to Sir John Malcolm, 'on the 20th of January, 183 1, and encountered ever}' imaginable difficulty and opposition from the Ameers of Sindh. They first drove us forcibly out of the country. On a second attempt they starved us out. But I was not even then prepared to give up hopes, and I ultimately gained the objects of pursuit by protracted negotiations, and voyaged safely and successfully to Lahore.* After he had once entered the Punjab, his journey, indeed, was quite an ovation. ' My reception in this country,* he wrote to his mother, on the last day of July, ' has been such as was to be expected from a Prince who has had so high an honour conferred on him as to receive presents from our gracious Sovereign. Immediately that I reached his frontier he sent a guard of horsemen as an honorary escort, and announced my arrival by a salute of eleven guns from the walls of the fortresses I passed. But what is this to the chief of Bahwulpore, lower down, who came all the way to Cutch to meet me, and with whom I had an interview, announced by eighty guns ? ' The mission, which had reached Lahore on the i8th of July, quitted it on the 14th of August ; and Burnes pro- of this is undeniable ; but it is to be observed that Burnes was in no degree responsible for the policy here denounced* He had only to execute the order of the Government.

1831.] WITH THE GOV,'GENERAL AT SIMLAH. 27

ceeded to Simlah, to give an account of his embassy in person to the Govern or-Greneral, who was then, with his secretaries, residing in that pleasant and salubrious retreat.

Lord William Bentinck received the young traveller with characteristic kindness, and listened with the deepest interest to the account of his adventures. He listened to the account, not only of what the young Bombay Lieu- tenant had done, but also of what he desired to do. Before he had started on this journey, Burnes had cherished in his heart the project of a still grander exploration — ^the explor- ation which was eventually to achieve for him fame and fortime. 'I have a vast ambition,' he wrote from the banks of the Jheelum to the ' old folks at home,* ' to cross the Indus and Indian Caucasus, and pass by the route of Balkh, Bokhara, and Samarcand, to the Aral and Caspian Seas, to Persia, and thence to return by sea to Bombay. All this depends upon circumstances ^ but I suspect that the magnates of this empire will wish to have the results of my present journey before I embark upon another.* He was right. But, having communicated the results of this journey, he found the Cabinet at Simlah well prepared to encourage another enterprise of the same character, on a grander scale. ' The Home Government,* he wrote to his sister, on the 23rd of September, 1831, 'have got fright- ened at the designs of Russia, and desired that some intelli- gent officer should be sent to acquire information in the countries bordering on the Oxus and the Caspian j and I, knowing nothing of all this, come forward and volunteer precisely for what they want. Lord Bentinck jumps at it, invites me to come and talk personally, and gives me com-

23 S/I^ ALEXANDER BURNES. [1832.

fort in a letter.' 'I quit Loodhianah/ he said, a few weeks later, 'on the ist of January, 1832, and proceed by Lahore to Attock, Caubul, Bameean, Balkh, Bokhara, and Khiva, to the Caspian Sea, and from thence to Astracan^ If I can but conceal my designs from the officers of the Russian Government, I shall pass through their territory to England, and visit my paternal roof in the Bow Butts.*

After a few more weeks of pleasant sojourning with the vice-regal court, Alexander Burnes started on his long and hazardous journey. He received his passports at Delhi two days before Christmas, and on the 3rd of January, £832, crossed the British frontiers, and shook off Western civilization. He was accompanied by a young assistant- surgeon, named Gerard, who had already earned for him- self a name by his explorations of the Himalayahs, and b) two native attaches, — the one, Mahomed Ali, in the capacity of a surveyor 5 the other, a young Cashmeree Ma- homedan, educated at Delhi, named Mohun Lai, who accompanied him as moonshee, or secretary. Traversing again the country of the ' five rivers,* and making divers pleasant and profitable explorations 'in the footsteps of Alexander the Great,* in the middle of March the travel- lers forded the Indus, near Attock, took leave of their Sikh friends, and became guests of the Afghans. There were at that time no jealousies, no resentments, between the two nations. The little knowledge that they had of us, derived from the fast-fading recollections of Mr Elphinstone*8 mission, was all in our favour 5 and we in our turn believed

1832.] CENTRAL-ASIAN TEA VELS. 29

them to be a cheerful^ simple-minded, kind-hearted, hos- pitable people. Along the whole line of country, from Peshawur to Caubul, which cannot now be even named amongst us without a shudder, the English travellers were welcomed as friends. From the Afghan capital, Burnes wrote on the loth of May, 1832, to his mother: 'My journey has been more prosperous than my most sanguine expectations could have anticipated -, and, instead of jealousy and suspicion, we have hitherto been caressed and feasted by the chiefs of the country. I thought Peshawur a de- lightful place, till I came to Caubid : truly this is a Para- dise.' His fine animal spirits rose beneath the genial influences of the buoyant bracing climate of Afghanistan. How happy he was at this time — ^how full of heart and hope — may be gathered from such of his letters as reached his friends. With what a fine gush of youthfid enthusiasm^ writing to the family at Montrose, to which his heart, un- travelled, was ever fondly turning, he describes his travel- life on this new scene of adventure. ' . . . . We travel from hence in ten days with a caravan, and shall reach Bokhara by the first of July If the road from Bok- hara to the Caspian is interrupted by war, of which there is a chance, I shall be obliged to pass into Persia, and in that event must bid farewell to the hope of seeing you, as I must return to India. The countries north of the Oxus are at present in a tranquil state, and I do not despair of reaching Istamboul in safety. They may seize me and sell me for a slave, but no one will attack me for my riches. Never was there a more humble being seen. I have no tent, no chair or table, no bed, and my clothes altogether

30 SIJ^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1832

amount, to the value of one pound sterling. You would disown your son if you saw him. My dress is purely Asiatic, and since I came into Caubul has been changed to that of the lowest orders of the people. My head is shaved of its brown locks, and my beard, dyed black, grieves — as the Persian poets have it — for the departed beauty of youth. I now eat my meals with my hands, and greasy digits they are, though I must say, in justification, that I wash before

and after meals I frequently sleep under a tree, but

if a villager will take compassion upon me I enter his house. I never conceal that I am a European, and I have as yet found the character advantageous to my comfort. I might assume all the habits and religion of the Mahomedans, since I can now speak Persian as my own language, but I should have less liberty and less enjoyment in an assumed garb. The people know me by the name of Sekundur, which is the Persian for Alexander, and a magnanimous name it is. With all my assumed poverty, I have a bag of ducats round my waist, and bills for as much money as I choose to draw. I gird my loins, and tie on my sword on all occasions, though I freely admit I would make more use of silver and gold than of cold steel. When I go into a company, I put my hand on my heart and say with all humility to the master of the house, '^ Peace be unto thee," according to custom, and then I squat myself down on the ground. This familiarity has given me an insight into the character of the people which I never otherwise could have acquired. I tell them about steam-engines, armies, ships, medicine, and all the wonders of Europe, and, in return, they enlighten me regarding the customs of their country, its

1832.] FIRST VISIT TO CAUBUL. 3^

history, state factions, trade, &c., I all the time appearing in- different and conversing thereon "pour passer le temps/* . '. . The people of this country are kind-hearted and hospitable j they have no prejudices against a Christian, and none against our nation. When they ask me if I eat pork, I of course shudder, and say that it is only outcasts who commit such

outrages. God forgive me ! for I am very fond of bacon,

•

and my mouth waters as I write the word. I wish I had some of it for breakfast, to which I am now about to sit down. At present I am living with a most amiable man, a Newab, named Jubbur Khan, brother to the chief of Caubul, and he feeds me and my companion daily. They understand gastronomy pretty well. Our breakfast consists of pill aw (rice and meat), vegetables, stews, and preserves, and finishes with fruit, of which there is yet abundance, though it is ten months* old. Apples, pears, quinces, and even melons are preserved, and as for the grapes, they are delicious. They are kept in small boxes in cotton, and are preserved throughout the year. Our fare, you see, is not so bad as our garb, and like a holy friar, we have sackcloth outside, but better things to line the inside. We have, however, no sack or good wine, for I am too much of a

politician to drink wine in a Mahomedan country

I am well mounted on a good horse, in case I should find it necessary to take to my heels. My whole baggage on earth goes on my mule, over which my servant sits super- cargo 5 and with all this long enumeration of my condition, and the entire sacrifice of all the comforts of civilized life, I never was in better spirits, and never less under the influ- ence of ennui I cannot tell you how my heart

32 S/I^ ALEXANDER BURNES. [1832.

leaps, to see all the trees and plants of my native land growing around me in this country.*

When Burnes and his companions quitted CaubuJ, the Newab Jubbur Khan, who had hospitably entertained them, and had endeavoured to persuade them to protract their sojourn with him, made every possible arrangement for the continuance of their journey in safety and comfort, and bade them ' God speed ' with a heavy heart. * I do not think,* said Burnes, ' I ever took leave of an Asiatic with more regret than I left this worthy man. He seemed to live for every one but himself.* He was known after- wards among our people by the name of ' the Good Newab j* and the humanity of his nature was conspicuous to the last.

Having quitted Caubul, the English travellers made their way to the foot of the Hindoo-Koosh, or Indian Cau- casus, and traversed that stupendous mountain-range to Koondooz, Kooloom, and Balkh. This was the route explored by those unfortunate travellers Moorcroft and Trebeck, of whom Burnes now found many traces, and whose sad history he was enabled to verify and authenticate. It was a relief to the young Englishman to find himself in the territory of the King of Bokhara, whose evil reputation had not been then established. ' As we were now in the territories of a king,* he naively recorded in the history of his journey, ' we could tell him our opinions, though it had, perhaps, been more prudent to keep them to ourselves.*

After a sojourn of three days at Balkh, which had many interesting and some painful associations, for it had been the capital of the ancient Bactrian kingdom, and a little wav

x83a.] A T BOKHARA. 33

beyond its walls was the grave of Moorcroft, Burnes and his companions made their way to the city of Bokhara, which they reached on the 27 th of June. There they re- sided for a space of nearly four weeks, receiving from the Vizier all possible kindness and hospitality. ^Sekundur/ said he to Burnes on his departure, ' I have sent for you to ask if any one has molested you in this city, or taken money from you in my name, and if you leave us contented? * I replied that we had been treated as honoured guests, that our luggage had not even been opened, nor our property taxed, and that I should ever remember with the deepest sense of gratitude the many kindnesses that had been shown

to us in the holy Bokhara 1 quitted this worthy

man with a full heart, and with sincere wishes (which I still feel) for the prosperity of this country.* The Vizier gave authoritative instructions to the conductors of the caravan with which Burnes was to travel, and to a Toorko- man chief who was to accompany it with an escort, to guard the lives and properties of the Feringhees, declaring that he would root them from the face of the earth if any accident should befall the travellers 3 and the Kixig of Bokhara gave them also a firman of protection bearing the royal seal. It is instructive to consider all this with the light of after-events to help us to a right understanding of its significance.

From Bokhara the route of the travellers lay across the great Toorkoman desert to Merve and Meshed, thence to Astrabad and the shores of the Caspian 3 thence to Teheran, the capital of the dominions of the Shah of Persia, from

which point Burnes moved down to the Persian Gulf, toek VOL. II, 3

34 S/I^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1833.

ship there to Bombay, and afterwards proceeded to Calcutta. The stoiy has been told by himself, with an abundance of pleasant detail, and is too well known to need to be re- peated. Summing up the whole, he says of it, in a few striking words, 'I saw everything, both ancient and modem, to excite the interest and inflame the imagination — Bactria, Trans-Oxiana, Scythia, and Parthia, Kharasm, Khorasan, and Iran. We had now visited all these countries : we had retraced the greater part of the route of the Macedonians 3 trodden the kingdoms of Poms and Taxiles, sailed on the Hydaspes, crossed the Indian Caucasus, and resided in the celebrated city of Balkh, from which Greek monarchs, far removed from the academies of Corinth and Athens, had once disseminated among mankind a knowledge of the arts' and sciences of their own history, and the world. We had beheld the scenes of Alexander's wars, of the rude and savage inroads of Jengis and Timour, as well as of the campaigns and revelries of Baber, as given in the delighful and glowing language of his commentaries. In the journey to the coast, we had marched on the very line of route by which Alexander had pursued Darius, while the voyage to India took us on the coast of Mekran, and the track of the Admiral Nearchus.'

At Calcutta, Alexander Burnes laid before the Governor- General an account of his journey, accompanying it with much grave discourse on the policy which it was expedient for the British Government to pursue towards the different states which he had visited. The result was exactly what he wished. He was sent home to communicate to the authorities in England the information which he liad ob-

1833-] HOMEWARD-BOUND. 35

tained. All this was truly delightful. Never in the midst of his wanderings in strange places, and among a strange people, had he forgotten the old home in Montrose, and the familiar faces of the household there j never had his heart ceased to yearn for the renewal in the flesh of those > dear old family associations. He liked India ^ he loved his work, he gloried in the career before him 5 but the good home-feeling was ever fresh in his heart, and he was con- tinually thinking of what was said and thought in Mont- rose. And in most of our Indian heroes this good home- feeling was kept alive to the last. It was not weariness of India J it was not a hankering after England. It was simply a good healthy desire to revisit the scenes of one's youth, to see again the faces of one's kindred, and then, strengthened and refreshed, to return with better heart for one's work.

On the 4th of November, 1833, Burnes landed at Dart- mouth, and wrote thence to his mother that he could scarcely contain himself for joy. On the 6th he was in London, with his brothers, David and Charles j dining in the evening with the Court of Directors, who had oppor- tunely one of their banquets at the London Tavern. Before the week was out, he was in a whirl of social excitement ; he was fast becoming a lion — only waiting, indeed, for the commencement of the London season, to be installed as one of the first magnitude. ' I have been inundated by visits,* he wrote to his mother, * from authors, publishers, societies, and what not. I am requested to be at the Geo-

3T S/ie ALEXANDER BURNES. [1833.

graphical Society this evening, but I defer it for a fortnight, when I am to have a night to myself. . . . All, all are kind to me. I am a perfect wild beast. — '^ There's the traveller,** "There*s Mr Burnes," "There's the Indus Burnes,*' and what not do I hear. I wish I could hear you and my father, and I would despise all other compli- ments.' ' I am killed with honours and kindness,' he said, in another letter, ' and it is a more painful death than starv- ation among the Usbeks.' In all this there was no exag- geration. The magnates of the land were contending for the privilege of a little conversation with ' Bokhara Burnes.' Lord Holland was eager to catch him for Holland House. Lord Lansdowne was bent upon carrying him off to Bowood. Charles Grant, the President of the Board of Control, sent him to the Prime Minister, Lord Grey, who had long con- fidential conferences with himj and, to crown all, the King — ^William the Fourth — commanded the presence of the Bombay Lieutenant at the Brighton Pavilion, and list- ened to the story of his travels and the exposition of his views for nearly an hour and a half.

The account of the interview, as recorded in his journal, is interesting and amusing : ' Well, I have been an hour and twenty minutes with William the Fourth, and eventful ones they have been. It is not likely that I shall have many interviews with royalty, so I may be prolix in this, the first one. From the Castle Square gate I was taken to Lord Frederic Fitzclarence, who led me to the Chinese Hall, where I sat for twenty minutes till the King transacted his business with Sir Herbert Taylor. " Take a book," said Lord Frederic, " from the shelf and amuse yourself j " and

1833.] INTERVIEW. WITH THE KING, 37

one of the first I pulled down, was — what? ^'Burnes' Justice." This was ludicrous — ^was it but justice that I should see the King, or what ? " Mr Burnes," cried a page. I passed through two rooms ; a large hall was thrown open, and I stood, hat in hand, in the presence of King William. " How do you do, Mr Burnes ? I am most glad to see you ; come arid sit down — ^take a chair — there, sit down, take a chair." The King stood but I sat, as compliance is polite- ness. There was rio bending of knees, no kissing of hand, no ceremony j I went dressed as to a private gentleman. I expected to find a jolly-looking, laughing man, instead of which, William looks grave, old, careworn, and tired. His Majesty immediately began on my travels, and, desiring me to wheel round a table for him, he pulled his cjiair and sat down by mine. Hereon I pulled out a map, and said that I hoped his Majesty would permit me to offer the explana- tion on it. I began, and got along most fluently. I told him of the difficulties in Sindh, the reception by Runjeet, &c., but William the Fourth was all for politics, so I talked of the designs of Russia, her treaties, intrigues, agencies, ambassadors, commerce, &c., the facilities, the obstacles regarding the advance of armies — I flew from Lahore to Caubul, from Caubul to Bokhara and the Caspian, and I answered a hundred questions to his Majesty. The King then got up, took me to a large map, and made me go over all a second time, and turning round to me, asked a great deal about me personally. " Where were you educated ? " 'fin Scotland, Sir.'* '^What is your age?" ''Twenty- eight, please your Majesty." *' Only twenty-eight ! What rank do you hold ? " I replied, that I was only a Lieutenant

38 S/I? ALEXANDER BURNES, [1833.

in the Army, but that my situation was political. '* Oh, that I know. Really, sir,'* commenced the King, " you are a wonderful man ) you have done more for me in this hour than any one has ever been able to do 5 you have pointed out everything to me. I now see why Lord William Bentinck places confidence in you j I had heard that you were an able man, but now I know you are most able. I trust in God that your life may be spared, that our Eastern Empire may benefit by the talents and abilities which you possess. You arc intrusted with fearful inform- ation : you must take care what you publish. My ministers have been speaking of you to me, in particular Lord Grey You will tell his Lordship and Mr Grant all the conversation you have had with me, and you will tell them what I think upon the ambition of Russia. ... I think, sir, that your suggestions and those of Lord William Bentinck are most profound j you will tell Lord William, when you return to India, of my great gratification at having met so intelligent a person as yourself, and my satisfaction at his Lordship's having brought these matters before the Cabinet. Lord Grey thinks as I do, that you have come home on a mission of primary importance — second only to the politics of Russia and Constantinople. . . . Lord Grey tells me that you have convinced him that our position in Russia is hope- less." So continued King William. I felt quite overcome with his compliments. He then made me run over my early services, wondered only I was not a Lieutenant-Col- onel if I had been an Assistant-Quartermaster-General, added that he saw sufficient reason for employing a man of my talents in the highest situation, and again hoped tl\at f-

1833] LITERARY LABOURS. 39

might be spared for my country's good. I replied to the King that I considered it a high honour to have had such confidential communication with his Majesty. He stopped me, and said that " I have been quite unreserved, for I see and know you deserve it. I could say many things to you,** &c. &c. I have no more time to write. The King wore a blue coat with the ribbon of the Garter, and a narrow red ribbon round his neck, to which a cross was suspended. *' Good morning, sir j I am truly happy to have seen you. You don't go to India yet,** &c. &c. I took my departure, and, while threading the passages, a page ran after me by desire of the King, to show me the Palace j but I had seen it.'

He was now hard at work upon his book. He had written many lengthy and valuable official reports j but he had little experience of literary composition for a larger public than that of a bureaucracy, and he was wise enough to discern that the path to popular favour must be very cau- tiously trodden. Mistrusting his own critical judgment, he submitted portions of his work, before publication, to some more experienced fi*iends, among whom were Mr James fiaillie Fraser and Mr Mountstuart Elphinstone. The lat- ter, not oblivious of his own early throes of literary labour, read the manuscript — painfully, in one sense, owing to the failure of his sight, but with the greatest interest and delight. ' I never read anything,' he wrote from his chambers in the Albany to Alexander Bumes, ' with more interest and plea- sure J and although I cannot expect that every reader will be as much delighted as I have been, yet I shall have a bad opinion of the people's taste if the narrative is not received

40 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [1833.

with general favour.* But although Mr Elphinstone be- stowed these general praises on the work, he was fain to do his young friend good service by honestly criticizing the work in detail. ' I have made my remarks,' he wrote, * with the utmost freedom, and the more so, because I hope you will not pay any attention to them when unsupported, but will be guided by the opinion of people who know the taste of this town, and who are familiar with criticism in general literature. I must premise that many of my objec- tions are founded on general principles, and may, therefore, often be brought against passages which in themselves may be beautiful, but which lack the general effect to which you ought always to look. The first of these principles is, that a narrative of this kind should be in the highest degree plain and simple.' The reader who has perused the preced- ing Memoir of Mr Elphinstone, may remember how, in the preparation of his own book of travels, he had steadfastly adhered to this critical tenet 5 but whether naturally, or against nature, I do. not undertake to say. My own impres- sion is that he had brought his native instincts and appeten- cies to this state of critical subjection after sore trial and hard conflict, and that he spoke with the authority of a man who had wrestled down some besetting temptations. For naturally he was ardent, enthusiastic, imaginative; and when he first began to write for the public, he might have given way to the exuberance which he afterwards deprecated, if it had not been for the pruning-knife of his friend Richard Jenkins. Critically, he was doubtless right 5 but when he continued thus to enlarge upon the paramount duty of sim- plicity, perhaps he did not suiHciently remember that a

1833] LITERARY LABOURS, 41

' fastidious public * may be a small one. ' To gain the con- fidence and good will of his reader/ he said, ' a traveller must be perfectly unaffected and unpretending. His whole object must seem to be to state what he has seen in the countries he has visited, without claiming the smallest supe- riority over his reader in any other description of knowledge or observation. For this reason, every unusual word, every fine sentiment, every general reflection, and every sign of an ambitious style, should be carefully excluded/ A hard lesson this for a young writer j and there was much more of the same kind j sound and excellent advice, altogether past dispute, and in accordance with the best critical canons. But Mr Elphinstone lived to see these severe literary doc- trines utterly set at nought by a younger race of writers — lived to see a * fastidious public ' take to its heart Eothen, as the most popular book of travels ever published in modern times.

Nor was the only pruning-knife applied to the exuber- ance of the young writer that which was wielded by the experienced hand of such chastened writers as Mr Elphin- stone, the official knife was also applied to the manuscript in the Secret Department of the India House. This was, doubtless, in a literary sense, disadvantageous to the book j but, after undergoing these ordeals, it came out under the auspices of Mr Murray j and Bumes had the honour of pre- senting a copy to the King at one of his Majesty's levees. ' I know all about this,' said the good natured monarch, mmdfid of Bumes's visit to him at Brighton. The book was an undoubted success. It was well received by the cntics and by the public, for not only was there something

42 S/ie ALEXANDER BURNES, [1834.

geographically new in it, but something also politically

suggestive. The Russo-phobia was gaining ground in

England. There were many who believed that the time

was fast approaching when the Sepoy and the Cossack

would meet, face to face, some where in Central Asia. It

was a great thing, therefore, just in that momentous epoch,

that some one should appear amongst us to whom the

countries lying between the Indus and the Caspian were

something more than places on the map. As the depository

of so much serviceable information, Bumes was sure to be

welcome everywhere. There was much, too, in the man

himself to increase the interest which his knowledge of these

strange countries excited. He was young in years, but

younger still in appearance and in manner. When he said

that he had been thirteen or fourteen years in India, Lord

Munster said to him, ' Why, that must have been nearly

all your life.* There was a charming freshness and naivete

about him — the reflection, it may be said, of a warm, true

heart, in which the home affections had never for a moment

been dormant. The greatest happiness which his success

gave him was derived from the thought that it would give

pleasure to his family, and might enable him to help them.

He had striven in vain, and his father had striven also,

through Sir John Malcolm and others, to obtain a cadetship

for his brother Charles j but now this great object was

readily obtainable, and the young man, who had been

waiting so long for this promotion, received, as a just tribute

to his brother, an appointment in the Bombay Army, which

others' influence had failed to procure for him.

He remained at home until the spring of 1835 5 ^^^

1834] RETURNING TO INDIA, 43

then^ with mingled feelings of hope and regret^ he set his face again towards the £ast.^ His sojourn in £ngland had been attended by so many gratifying and flattering circum- stances^ that to one of his impressionable nature it must have been a continual delight from the first day to the last. Among other honours bestowed on him of which I have not spoken^ it may be recorded here that he received the gold medal of our Geographical Society, and the silver medal of the Greographical Society of Paris, and that he was nominated, without ballot, a member of the Athenaeum Club— an honour which has been described as the ' Blue Riband of Literature.* In Paris, too, the savans of that enlightened city received him with as much enthusiasm as our own people. It would have been strange if, at his early age, his head had not been somewhat ' turned * by all this success. But if it caused him to set a high value on his own services, it caused him also to strain his energies to the utmost not to disappoint the expectations which had been formed of him by others. A little youthful vanity is not a bad thing to help a man on in the world.

When Bumes returned to Bombay, he was ordered to rejoin his old appointment as assistant to the Resident in Cutch. In the course of the autumn he was despatched by

* He went out overland in charge of despatches from the India House, and proceeded from Suez to Bombay in the Hugh Lindsay (pioneer) steamer, from which vessel he sent intelligence to Sir Charles Metcalfe that Lord Heytesbury had been appointed Govem- OF'General of India.

44 S//e ALEXANDER BURNES, [xZ^

Colonel Pottinger on a mission to Hyderabad^ the capital of the Ameers of Sindh. * I am doomed,* he wrote, ' to lead a vagabond life for ever j but all this is in my way, and I am in great spirits.* But neither were his habits of so vagrant a character, nor the necessities of his work so en- grossing, as to prevent him from thinking and writing about what has since been called the ' Condi tion-of-India Question.' He was very eager always for the moral elevation of th6 people, and he spoke with some bitterness oi those who looked upon India merely as a preserve for the favoured European services. ' Do not beheve,* he wrote to a friend, * that I wish to supersede Europeans by unfit natives. I wish gradually to raise their moral standard, now so low, for which we are, however, more to blame than themselves. Men will say, " Wait till they are ready." I can only reply, that if you wait till men are fit for liberty, you will wait for ever. Somewhere in the Edinburgh Review of days of yore, you will find this sentiment, which is mine : " Will a man ever learn to swim without going into the water ? ** ' After insisting on the duty of encouraging education by providing profitable employment for the educated classes, and declaring that we should thus soon cover the country with educated and thinking people, he continued in this letter from Hyderabad : ' There is nothing here that I cannot support by history. Tacitus tells us a similar tale of our own ancestors, among whom Agricola sowed the seeds of greatness. That accomplished historian speaks of the super- stitions of the Britons — of the ferocity of the hill tribes — of the degeneracy of those who had been subdued — of the want of union which had led to it — of the alacrity with which they

1836.] THE COMMERCIAL MISSION, 45

paid their tribute, &c. &c. Change the name of Briton to Indian, and what have we but a sketch of this country under our present rule ? And who are we ? The descendants of those savages whom Agricola, by new and wise regulations, educated — ^we who are now glorious throughout the world.* And again, a few months later, he wrote : ' I look upon the services, one and all, as quite subservient to the great end of governing India 5 but I seldom meet with any one who looks upon India in any other light than as a place for those services, which is to me so monstrous, that I have, like Descartes, begun " to doubt my own existence, seeing such doubt around me.** * He spoke of this with righteous indignation, but there was a tinge of exaggeration in his words 5 and he spoke somewhat too strongly even with reference to those times when he said that, ' instead of raising up a glorious monument to our memory, we should impover- ish India more thoroughly than Nadir, and become a greater curse to it than were the hordes of Timour.*

But his services were now about to be demanded by the Government in a more independent position. Lord Auckland had proceeded to India as Governor-General. He had met Bumes at Bowood, had been pleased with his conversation, and had formed a high opinion of the energy and ability of the young subaltern. When, therefore, the first rude scheme of a pacific policy in the countries beyond the Indus took shape in his mind, he recognized at once the fact that Bumes. must be one of its chief agents. So the Cutch Assistant was placed under the orders of the Supreme Government, and directed to hold himself in readiness to undertake what was described at the time, and is still known in history, as a

46 5/^ ALEXANDER BURNES. [1836.

• Commercial mission* to Caubul. Commerce, in the voca- bulary of the East, is only another name for conquest. By commerce, the East India Company had become the sovereigns of the great Indian peninsula; and this com- mercial mission became the cloak of grave political designs. Very soon the cloak was thrown aside as an encumbrance, and, instead of directing his energies to the opening of the navigation of the Indus, the institution of fairs, and the opening of the new commercial routes through the Afghan and Beloochee countries, Alexander Bumes gave up his mind to the great work of check- mating Russia in the East. 'In the latter end of November, 1836, I was directed by the Governor-General of India, the Earl of Auckland, to undertake a mission to Caubul. Lieutenant (now Major) Robert Leech, of the Bombay Engineers, Lieutenant John Wood, of the Indian Navy, and Percival B. Lord, Esq., M. B., were appointed with me in the undertaking. The objects of Government were to work out its policy of opening the river Indus to commerce, and establishing on its banks and in the countries beyond it such relations as should contribute to the desired end. On the 26th of November we sailed from Bombay, and sighting the fine palace at Mandavee on the 6th of December, we finally landed in Sindh on the 13 th of the month. Dr Lord did not join our party till March.* Such is the first page of a book written some years afterwards by Sir Alexander Burnes, in which he tells the story of this visit to Caubul, stripped of all its political apparel. Neither in its commercial nor its scientific aspects was it wholly a failure.* Burnes drew up a report on the trade of the Indus,

* Lord Auckland, it shoidd be stated, received this as % legacy

1836.] GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF CANADA. 47

and Wood wrote an excellent paper on its navigation ; but events were developing themselves even faster than the ideas of the travellers; and commerce and science, though not wholly forgotten, soon dwindled into second-rate affairs.

Lord Auckland was not an ambitious man — quiet, sensible, inclined towards peace, he would not have given himself up to the allurements of a greater game, if he had not been stimulated, past all hope of resistance, by evil ad- visers, who were continually pouring into his ears alarming stories of deep-laid plots and subtle intrigues emanating from the Cabinet of St Petersburg, and of the wide-spread corruption that was to be wrought by Russian gold. It was believed that the King of Persia had become the vassal of the great Muscovite monarch, and that he had been insti- gated by the Government of the Emperor to march an army to Herat for the capture of that famous frontier city, and for the further extension of his dominions towards the

from Lord William Bentinck, with whom Bumes had been in com- munication in India, and in correspondence during his residence in England. Whilst at home, Bumes had ceaselessly impressed on the King's ministers, as well as on the Directors of the Company, the importance of not neglecting, either in their commercial or their political aspects, the countries beyond the Indus ; and some of his letters, written at this time, give interesting accounts of his interviews with Lord Grey, Mr Charles Grant, Lord Lansdowne, and other statesmen, on this favourite subject. In one letter to Lord William Bentinck, he wrote that Lord Grey took a too European view of the question, and considered it chiefly * in connection with the designs of Russia towards Constantinople ; ' whilst Lord Lansdowne, having * a mind cast in so noble a mould, looked with more interest on the great future of human society than on our immediate relations with those countries.

48 S/I? ALEXANDER BURNES, \y&yj.

boundaries of our Indian Empire. The attack upon Herat was a substantial fact ; the presence of Russian officers in the Persian territory, as aiders and abettors of the siege of Herat, was also a fact. The dangers which were appre- hended were essentially very similar to those which had alarmed us more than a quarter of a century before, and which had caused the despatch of Mr Elphinstone's mission to Af- ghanistan. But there were some circumstantial differences* Not only had the Russian power taken the place of the French in the great drama of intrigue and aggression, but another actor had appeared upon the scene to take the leading business at Caubul. There had been a revolution, or a succession of revolutions, in Afghanistan. The Sud- dozye King, Shah Soojah, whom Elphinstone had met at Peshawur, was now a pensioner in the British dominions, and the Barukzye chief. Dost Mahomed, was dominant at Caubul.

This was the man who, in the autumn of 1837, ^^' comed the English gentlemen to his capital. 'On the 20th of September,* wrote Burnes in his published book, ' we entered Caubul, and were received with great pomp and splendour by a fine body of Afghan cavalry, led by the Ameer's son, Akbar Khan. He did me the honour to place me upon the same elephant on which he himself rode, and conducted us to his father's court, whose re- ception of us was most cordial. A spacious garden close to the palace, and inside the Balla Hissar of Caubul, was allotted to the mission as their place of residence. On the 2ist of September we were admitted to a formal audience by Ameer Dost Mahomed Khan, and I then delivered to

1837.] DOST MAHOMED. 49

him my credentials from the Governor-General of India. His reception of them was all that could be desired. I in- formed him that I had brought with me as. presents to his Highness, some of the rarities of Europe j he promptly replied that we ourselves were the rarities, the sight of which best pleased him.' But neither the presents nor the promises,^which Bumes was allowed to make to* the Af- ghans, were of a character that could much gratify them. The fact is, that we sought much, and that we granted little. Dost Mahomed was at this time greatly perplexed and embarrassed. Alarmed by the attitude of the Sikhs on the one side,* and of the Persians on the other, he looked to the English for support and assistance in his troubles. But weeks passed away, and weeks grew into months. The English gentlemen remained at Caubul, but he could extract no comfort from them 5 and, in the mean while a Russian agent had appeared upon the scene, less chary of his consolations. * To the East,' said Bumes, ^ the fears of Dost Mahomed were allayed j to the West they were increased. In this state of things his hopes were so worked upon, that the ultimate result was his estrangement from the British Government.*

It was our policy to secure the good offices of the Ameer, and it was the duty of Alexander Burnes to accomplish the

* Whilst Bumes and his companion had been moving onward from Sindh to Afghanistan, through Beloochistan and the Punjab, the Sikhs and Afghans had been fighting for Peshawur. In May a great battle was fought at Jumrood, in which the Sikhs were victorious. The disturbed state of the cotmtiy had delayed the progress of the Mission.

VOL. ir. 4

50 S/Ii ALEXANDER BURNES. [1837-38.

object. Left to himself he would have done it. He^ who best knew Dost Mahomed^ had mosi faith in him. The Ameer was eager for the British alliance^ and nothing was easier than to secure his friendship. But whilst Bumes was striving to accomplish this great object at Caubul^ other counsels were prevailing at Simlah — that great hotbed of intrigue on the Himalayan hills — ^where the Governor- General and his secretaries were refreshing and invigorating themselves, and rising to heights of audacity which they never might have reached in the languid atmosphere of Calcutta. They conceived the idea of reinstituting the old deposed dynasty of Shah Soojah, and they picked him out of the dustof Loodhianah to make him a tool and a puppet, and with the nominal aid of Runjeet Singh, who saw plainly that we were making a mistake which might be turned to his advantage, they determined to replace the vain, weak- minded exile, whom his country had cast out as a hissing and a reproach, on the throne of Afghanistan. It is enough to state the fact. The policy was the policy of the Simlah Cabinet, with which Bumes had nothing to do. It was rank injustice to Dost Mahomed. It was rank injustice to Alexander Bumes. The young English officer, who had been twice the guest of the Barukzye Sirdars of Caubul, who had led them to believe that his Grovemment would support them, and who had good and substantial reason to believe that they would be true to the English alliance, now found that he was fearfully compromised by the conduct of his official superiors. He left Caubul, and made his way to Simlah 3 and it is said that the secretaries received him

1838.] AT'SIMLAIL 51

with eager entreaties not to spoil the 'great game* by dissuading Lord Auckland from the aggressive policy to which he had reluctantly given his consent.

This was in the summer of 1838. Even if the young Bombay officer could have spoken with 'the tongue of angels,* his words would have been too late. What could he do against a triumvirate of Bengal civilians — the ablest and most accomplished in the country'? It is true that he had an intimate acquaintance, practical, personal, with the politics of Afghanistan, whilst all that they knew was derived from the book that he had written, from the writings of Mount- stuart Elphinstone, and from another book of travels written by a young cavalry officer named Arthur ConoUy, of whom I shall presently give some account in this volume. But they had had the ear of the Grovernor-Greneral whilst Burnes had been working at Caubul 5 and so their crude theories prevailed against his practical knowledge. He was not, however,, a man of a stubborn and obstinate nature, or one who could work out, with due ministerial activity, only the policy which he himself favoured'. It is the sorest trial of official life to be condemned to execute measures, which you have neither recommended n >r approved, and then to be identified with them as thouga they were your own. But every good public servant miist consent to bear this burden with all becoming resignatk n and humility. The State could not be efficiently servec , if every subordinate servant were to assume to himself thi; right of independent judgment. Burnes would have supported Dost Mahomed from the first, but when it was decreed that Shah Soojah

52 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES, [1838.

shoula be supported, Barnes endeavoured to reconcile him- self to the policy, and did his best to render it successful.* What his views were may be gathered from the following letter, which he wrote to Sir John Hobhouse, in December, 1838: 'The retreat of the Persians from Herat has been to us all most gratifying intelligence, but the subsequent proceedings of the Shah raise up in my mind the strongest

* From Simlab he wrote on the loth of September, 1838, say- ing : * I implored the Government to act. His Lordship lauded me for my abilities, &c., but thought I was travelling too fast, and would do nothing. Matters got worse hourly. Letters from Russian agents, promising everything to the Afghan chiefs, fell into my hands. I founded on them further remonstrances at the supineness of Govern- ment ; their eyes were opened ; they begged of me to hold on at Caubul if I could ; but I knew my duty better to my country, for meanwhile Russian good ofBces had been accepted to the exclusion of the British, and I struck my flag and returned to India, saying : ** Behold what your tardiness has done I " You might think disgrace would follow such proceedings: far from it — they applauded my vigour, and twenty thousand men are now imder orders to do what a word might have done earlier, and two millions of money must be sunk in what I offered to do for two lakhs ! How came this about ? Persia has been urged by Russia to attack Herat and invade India. Poor Dost Mahomed is afraid of the Sikhs on one side, and of Persia on the other. Russia guaranteed him against Persia, and thus he clung to her instead of us. Sagacity might have led him to act other- wise, but he was placed in difficult circumstances, and we augmented his difficulties. In the dilemma they asked my views. I replied : ** Self-defence is the first law of nature. If you cannot bring round Dost Mahomed, whom you have used infamously, you must set up Shah Soojah as a puppet, and establish a supremacy in Afghan- istan, or you will lose India." This is to be done, and we have drawn closer to Runjeet Singh, who has feathered his nest in our dilemma, and kept all his Afghan country, under our promise of support.

1838.] HIS OPINIONS OF THE CRISIS. 53

donbt of our having brought his Majesty to reason^ or done aught but to postpone the evil day for a time. The fron- tier fortress of Afghanistan — Ghorian — is still garrisoned by Persian troops^ and besides a messenger on the part of the Shah now at Cahdahar and Caubul, the Russian officer^ Captain Vicovitch, is at Candahar, and has already distributed 10,000 ducats among the chiefs who have called out their retainers, and are now on their route to invest Herat. The Russian declares on all occasions that Mahomed Shah will return, and that the money he distributes is not Russian gold, but that of the Shah 5 and further, that if Herat falls into their hands, the Russians will then lead the Afghans to the At- tock (Indus). After the gallant defence made by Herat, it might not appear at all possible that the chiefs of Candahar should capture it with their rabble band 3 but still I have some apprehensions, as well from the reduced and dilapid- ated state of Herat itself, as from its being now about to be invested by Afghans. In their wars, victory is decided by defection. The mmister of Herat is unpopular, and he will not be Sible to rouse the courage of his people by their fighting against the enemies of their religion, as were the Sheeah Persians. On the raising of the siege of Herat, I wrote at <xice to Lieutenant Pottinger, sending him 20,000 rupees, and telling him " to draw on me for such a simi as is indispensable to place the waUs of Herat in a state of re- pair, and relieve its suffering inhabitants from want," and I have received the Governor- Greneral*s sanction to send liim a lakh of rupees 3 but in a subsequent part of this letter I will point out that we ought to make much larger sacrifices than this, and as Lord Auckland does not as yet know of the

54 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [1838.

• ^^

extent of this new Russian intrigue, I shall, without hesita- tion, cash any bill from Herat for money expended as I have stated. Till I received very precise accounts of Vico- vitch's proceedings, I could not unravel the object of his intrigue, but I have had a practicalproof of it within this week from the chief of Khelat, the first ruler we shall encounter on our way to Candahar, and through whose territory is the great Pass of Bolan. To an invitation sent to this per- son to co-operate with us, from Lord Auckland^ Shah Soojah, and myself, he tells me that he is a friend, and will do all that is wished, but that he wants certain territories restored to him 3 that he supports the Shah only to oblige us, and that the chief of Candahar had offered him a part of the Russian gold now and hereafter to side wfth him. As an alliance between Candahar and Khelat is perfectly out of the question, and Mehrab Khan*s (the chief is so called) pretensions, if allowed to take root, would involve serious embarrassment, I have plainly told him that he is either to be a friend or a foe, and I have little doubt that all will go right with him. But it is not the small chief- ship of Khelat or its petty politics that would lead me to trouble you with an introduction of them. What is to be said to a regular train of proof now brought to light of Russian intrigue from Khelat to Kokund, or fi*om the sea to the northern portion of Cashmere ! It is clear, and ap- pears to me imperative on the British Grovemment to spare neither expense nor labour to supplant this growing in- fluence. It is, therefore, with every satisfaction that I see the Grovemor-G^eneral resolved upon carrying through his measures, even though Herat be relieved, for we can have

1838.] HIS OPINIONS OF THE CRISIS, 55

no security for the future without rearing a solid fabric westward of the Indus. Our policy there for the last thirty years has been so supine and full of reserve^ that we have to thank ourselves only for the evils that have accumulated. It is not fitting in me to say things of what might have been so easily done by us in Caubul and Candahar last year^ since, however much the loss of that opportimity is to be regretted, the basis of the present war is self-defence, the first law of nature. On that stable ground the Grovemment can and must defend its measures, and if sympathy and faction united raise up a party to side with Dost Mahomed Khan, they may paint with much colour the hardship of his case (and it is a very hard one), but all faction must sink before the irrefragable evidence that our Indian Empire is endangered by a further perseverance in our late and inert policy. But supposing our plans for placing Shah Soojah on the throne . of his ancestors to succeed, it is evident that we shall have a strong imder-current of intrigue to work up against, and that Russia will now add to her former means of intriguing tnrough the Persians in Afghanistan, the unseated rulers of Caubul and Candahar. All our ener^es will, therefore, be called forth, for I consider Persia to be as much subject to Russia as India is to Britain, and we must make up our minds to oppose her, face to face, on the Afghan frontier. My journey to Bokhara in 1832 served to convince me that Russia had ulterior designs eastward, which I expressed as firmly as I believed, but it was not the policy of the day to check them, I did not think that her progress and intrigues would have been so rapid as they have been, and I then believed that we might have injured Russia in these countries

56 5//? ALEXANDER BURNES. [1838.

by giving encouragement to the Indus commerce and founding fairs, but all these hopes are now vain, without the display of physical power aiding our moral influence. I have urged Lord Auckland to fortify Herat on the prin- ciples most approved by engineers. I will give the same advice with reference to Candahar when it falls to us, and I hope in the course of a month to have received from the chief of Northern Sindh (to whose Court I am accredited as Envoy) the fortress of Bukkur. The grand line of route will thus be in our hands, and at Caubul itself we shall have a strong government by supporting the Shah, and a good pledge for his continued friendship in the British officers we have placed in his service.*

When it was determined by Lord Auckland's Govern- ment that a great army should be assembled for the invasion of Afghanistan and the restoration of Shah Soojah to the throne of Caubul, the army was to march by the way of the Bolan Pass, through the country ruled by the Ameers of Sihdh, and Bumes was to be sent forward to make all necessary arrangements for the passage of our army through those little known and difficult regions to Candahar. If he had formed any expectation of being vested with the supreme political control of the expedition, and afterwards of representing British interests at the Court of Shah Soojah> they were not unreasonable expectations. But Mr Mac- naghten was appointed ' Envoy and Minister * at Caubul, whilst Captain Burnes, in the vice-regal programme having no assured place, was to be employed as a wayside emissary. But the sharpness of his disappointment was mitigated by the receipt of letters announcing that the Queen had taken

1838.] NEW HONOURS. 57

his services into gracious consideration, and had made him a Kgight, with the military rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. This sent him about his work with better heart, and he brought all his energies to bear upon the important duty of smoothing the road for the march of the army of the Indus, and the procession of the restored Suddozye monarch into the heart of the country, which never wanted him, and which he was wholly incompetent to govern.

Nor were these the only gratifying circumstances which raised his spirits at this time. He found that the policy which he would have worked out in Afghanistap, though thwarted by the Simlah Cabinet, had found favour in high places at home. Lord Auckland himself frankly acknow- ledged this, and generously afforded Bumes full license to en- joy his victory. ' I enclose a letter from the Grovernor-General himself,* wrote Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Alexander Burnes, from Shikarpore, on the 4th of December, 'which is a document very dear to me, and ^hich I told Lord Auck"- land I prized as high as the honours themselves. The fact is,. I have been playing the boldest game a man ever dared. I differed entirely with the Govemor-Greneral as to his policy in Afghanistan, told him it would ruin us, cost the nation millions, when a few lakhs now would keep off Russia. They would not be guided by me, and sent me a laudatory wig (reprimand), and as sure as I had been a prophet, my predictions are verified. Russia is upon us, and the Home Government has pronounced me right and his Lordship wrong ! This is the greatest hit I have made in life. Seeing how they had mismanaged all things, they asked my advice j but, like all timid politicians, they ran

58 Slid ALEXANDER BURNES, [1838.

from one extreme to another. An army was necessary, but not so large an army. However, I told Lord Auck- land I should do all I could to work out his views, and am doing so. The declaration of war you will see in the papers, and how much has come out of my mission to Caubul.' *

At this time Burnes was employed on a mission to the Ameers of Sindh, with the object of smoothing the way for the advance of the British army, which was to march, by way of the Bolan Pass, to Candahar and Caubul. It was not work that could be accomplished without some harsh- ness and injustice 3 and there are indications in his corre- spondence that he did not much like the course, which he was compelled to pursue, in dealing with Meer Roostum of Khyrpore, from whom the cession of Bukkur was to be obtained. But he had a natural taste for diplomacy, and the issues of success sometimes so dazzled his eyes, that he did not see very clearly^ the true nature of the means of accomplishment. 'I have been travelling to Khyrpore,' he wrote to Percival Lord, on New Years-day, 1839,

* The following is the text of Lord Auckland's letter : 'Simlah,. Nov. 5, 1838. — ^My dear Sir, — ^I cordially congratulate you on the public proofs of approbation with which you have been marked at home. My private letters speak in high terms of your proceedings at Caubul, and I may in candour mention that "upon the one point upon which there was some difference between us — the proposed ad- vance of money to Candahar — opinions for which I have the highest respect, are in your favour. I do not grudge you this, and am only glad that a just tribute has been paid to your ability and indefatigable zeal. The superscription of tins letter will, in case you have not received direct accounts, explain my meaning to you. — Yours, very &ithfully, Auckland.'

1838-39.] NEGOTIATIONS WITH MEHRAB KHAN, 59

' treaty-making on a great scale^ and, what is welJ, carry- ing all before me. I have got the fortress of Bukkur ceded to us on our own terms (which are, that we are to hold it now and during war) — ^the Khyrpore State to place itself imder British protection 5 and a clause has been inserted in my treaty paving the way for the abolition of all tolls on the Indvis ! Huzza ! See how old Roostum and his minister (the Boree, as you christened him) have cut up. You did not expect such a chef-d'oeuvre as this, which is a fit ending to the Caubul mission, since by Bukkur the Macedonians bridled the neighbouring nations. All these great doings happened at Christmas, and I wanted your hilarious tones to make the enjoyment of the day com- plete.*

There was other work, too, for him at this time — other treaties to be thrust down the throats of the Sindh Ameers. Higher up, along the line of our advancing army, Mehrab Khan of Khelat was to be brought to terms. Biimes, who was officially * Envoy to the Chief of Khelat or other States,* was, of course, sent forward to negotiate the desired treaty, and to obtain, from the Chief, supplies for the troops who were passing through his territory. But they had already devastated his coimtry 5 there was no grain to be had, and all the food that could be supplied to our army consisted of some ill-fed sheep. ' The English,* said Mehrab Khan to Bumes, 'have come, and by their march through my country, in different directions, destroyed the crops, poor as they were, and have helped themselves to the water that irrigated my lands, made doubly valuable in this year of tcarcity.* * I might have allied myself,* he added, * with

6o Sm ALEXANDER BUENES. [1839.

Persia and Russia 5 but I have seen you safely through the great defile of the Bolan^ and yet I am unrewarded.' The reward he sought was, that he might be relieved for ever from the mastery of the Suddozye kings 5 but, instead ot this, it was made a condition of any kind of peaceable negotiation with him, that he should pay homage to Shah Soojah in his camp. Reluctantly bowing to the hard necessity, he consented, and the treaty was sealed. The English undertook to pay him an annual subsidy of a lakh and a half of rupees, in return for which he was to do his best to obtain supplies for us, and to keep open the passes for our convoys. Burnes saw clearly that he had to deal in this instance with a man of great shrewdness and ability. He was warned by the chief that the expedition on which the English had embarked had the seeds of failure within it. 'The Khan,* wrote Burnes to Macnaghten, 'with a good deal of earnestness, enlarged upon the undertaking the British had embarked in 5 declared it to be one of vast magnitude and difficult accomplishment^ that instead of relying on the AfFghan nation, our Grovernment had cast them aside, and inundated the country with foreign troops j that if it was our end to establish ourselves in Afghanistan, and give Shah Soojah the nominal soviereignty of Caubul and Candahar, we were pursuing an erroneous course 5 that all the Afghans were discontented with the Shah, and all Mahomedans alarmed and excited at what was passings that day by day men returned discontented, and we might find ourselves awkwardly situated if we did not point out to Shah Soojah his errors, if the fault originated with him, and alter them if they sprung from ourselves 3 that the chief

x839.] THE INVASION OF AFGHANISTAN. 6i

of Cauoul (Dost Mahomed) was a man of ability and re- source, and though we could easily put him down by Shah Soojah even in our present mode of procedure, we could never win over the Afghan nation by it.* Truer words than" these were seldom spoken 3 and often, doubtless, as events developed themselves in Afghanistan, did Bumes think over the warnings of that ill-fated Khelat chief.

How the British army entered Afghanistan, how Dost Mahomed was driven out of the country, .how the people for a while sullenly acquiesced in the revolution, which was accomplished by the force of British bayonets and the in- fluence of British gold, are matters which belong to history. The further we advanced, the more difficult became the solution of the question, 'What is to be done with Sir Alexander Bumes ? * At cme time there was some thought of his going to Herat, but this was abandoned. On the i8th of June he wrote from Candahar to one of his brothers, saying: 'In possession of Candahar, the affairs of Herat flrst engaged our attention, and I was nominated to proceed there with guns and money to make a treaty. After being all ready to go, Macnaghten announced his intention of going back to Simlah, and suggested my going on to Caubul to take charge of the mission. When he went, I at once chose to go to Caubul, for the policy of Grovernment in Herat affairs I do not like. A King at Caubul and another at Herat are "two Kings at Brentford," from

•

which I foresee serious evils. I wished them to put all under Shah Soojah, but after Stoddart had been eje'cted, young Pottinger allowed himself to be apologized to for their threatening to murder him, and the opportunity was

63 S/R ALEXANDER BURNES, [1839.

lost. The wretches have again quarrelled with Pottinger, and cut off a hand of one of his servants 5 but this also is for the present made up, and Major Todd starts to-morrow for Herat, and I predict can do nothing, for nothing is to be done with them. Kamran is an imbecile, 'and the Minister, Yar Mahomed, is a bold but doubtful man.

The King and I are great friends, but I cannot

shut my eyes to the fact that he has nothing in common with the chief pf Caubul. But he is legitimate, and that is a great point 3 and we are to keep him on the throne, so that I think things will go much better than is generally believed.*

Shah Soojah was restored to the.Balla Hissar of Caubul, and Sir Alexander Burnes settled down into a most ano- malovis and unsatisfactory position. He had no power and no responsibility. He gave advice which was seldom taken, and he saw things continually going wrong without any power to set them right^ It is impossible to conceive any more unpleasant situation than that which for more than two years — during the latter part of 1839, ^^*^ ^ through 1840 and 1841 — ^he occupied at the Court of Caubul. If, at that time, he had not been sometimes irritable, and sometimes desponding, he would have been more or less than a man. He had been taught to believe that Mac- naghten had been sent only for' a little space into Afghan- istan, to be soon removed to a higher office, and then that he himself would be placed in the supreme direction of affairs. But month after month — ^nay, year after year — passed, and there 'was no change 3 and Burnes began to write somewhat bitterly of the good faith of the Governor-

1839] AT CAUBUL. 63

Greneral, and to contrast his conduct with the soft words of the man who had spoken so kindly and encouragingly to him on the ' couch at Bowood.' His correspondence at this time reflects, as in a glass, a mind altogether unsettled, if not discontented. He wanted active, stirring work 3 and, save on rare occasions, there was little or none for him. He was disappointed, too, and perhaps somewhat embittered 5 for a great crop of honours had resulted from this invasion of Afghanistan. Sir John Keane had been made a Peer, and Mr M acnaghten a Baronet 3 and Burnes thought that his just claim to further distinction had been ignored. He might have been reconciled to this, for his own honours were of very recent growth, if the Grovernor-Greneral had placed him in a position of dignity and responsibility. But there was really nothing to be done for the PoUtical Second-in- command. It was at one time discussed whether he might not be appointed ' Resident at Candahar 5' but this scheme was abandoned ; and at last Burnes came to the conclusion that it was his special mission to receive three thousand rupees a month for the mere trouble of drawing the money. There was not one of his correspondents to whom he unburdened himself so freely as to his friend Percival Lord (then employed in the neighbourhood of Bameean, near the Hindoo-Koosh), to whom he wrote freely, alike on Afghan politics and on his own personal position. A few illustrative extracts from this correspondence may be given here : ' Caubul, November 2, 1839. ^ ^^^e been expecting to hear fix)m you on this astounding intelligence from Turkistan. I have letters from Nazir Khan Oollah that leave no doubt of the Russians having come to Khiva, or

64 S/Id ALEXANDER BURNES, [1839.

being on the road there. Have they ulterior views or not ? Is Herat their end, or Bokhara? It is evident that your presence is required at Bokhara, but that cannot be m the present distracted state of the country j native agency must be employed, and more than spies. Macnaghten has, there- fore, resolved on sending Mahomed Hoosein Karkee to tell the King that his proceedings in not answering our letters, in threatening our cossids, in fearing Shah Soojah, are all wrong, with much other matter of that kind. The officials you will get all in due time, but this is to give you notice that Karkee is coming to you to get his final instructions. He is a clever fellow, and has killed his pig ^ith the Dost and the King of Persia, so there is no fear of his taking their part. He may be bribed by Russia, but that we cannot help, and it is but right to give the King of Bokhara a chance. I wish to God you could go yourself, and I know Lord A. wishes it, but he declares that the country is not safe, and that, after Stoddart's fate, he has a great reluctance to put our officers in what the Field-Marshal would call a false position. I for one believe in all the reports of the advance of Russia. Of course her fifty regiments may be but ten ; but we had better look out, seeing the Dost is loose, and Herat with its walls unprepared. As a precautionary measure, the Bombay column will be halted after Khelat

is settled, till w^ see what turns up ' ' November 10.

Old Toorkistanee as you are, you seem to be quite quiescent about the Russian movement in Orgunje, and do not, I imagine fi-om your silence, believe it, but I assure you it is a serious business. I have a letter from Herat twenty-seven days old confirming it, and giving particulars about the

I839-] LETTERS TO DR LORD, . 65

Vizier, Yar Mahomed Khan, being tampered with by the Russians, all of which seems to have been concealed from Todd. I am most anxious to hear further, and have sent a Hindoo on to Khiva itself, who will pass through your camp in a day or two. I have letters from London explanatory of Vicovitch*s death, which Count Nesselrode writes to Lord Palmerston was annoying them, as the Russian Go- vernment had blamed Simonich, and not Vicovitch '

' November 22. Here is a curious anecdote for you 3 let me have your opinion. A couple of years before our mission arrived at Caubul, Vicovitch (the true Vicovitch) came to Bokhara, called at Ruheem Shah*s relative's house, and asked him to send letters to Masson at Caubul for MM. Al- lard and Vetura. The King of Bokhara took offence at Vico- vitch's presence, and the Koosh-Begee sent him off sharp. So the letters were never sent. This shows an earher inten- tion to intrigue on the part of Russia \ but how came Masson not to report this, and if he reported it, how came he to give, years afterwards, twenty-one reasons for Vicovitch not being what he was? I cannot unravel this. I once spoke of this before to you, and to no other man ' ' De- cember 13. How can I say things go wrong? Sheets of fools- cap are written in praise of the Shah*s contingent, and, as God is my judge, I tremble every time I hear of its being employed that it will compromise its officers. You cannot, then, imagine I would ever advocate a weak and yet undis- ciplined corps garrisoning Bameean. Your remark about employing Afghans in Koonee and Khyber, as you may well imagine, agrees with my own views, but I am not the

Bnvoy. I see European soldiers sent to look after Khyberees, VOL. II. 5

66 S//^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1840.

and as well might they be sent after wild sheep. I see, what is worse, Craigie*s corps sent after the disaffected at Koonee, when they are not yet drilled, and when Afghans are quite up to the work. From all this I see that Shah Soojah never can be left without a British army, for his own

contingent will never be fit for anything * ' January 7,

1840. I will send you a letter from Lord Auckland to me, wishing again to make me Resident at Candahar, but not to go there unless it ' pleased ' nie. I replied to Macnaghten that this useless correspondence had been going on since August, and it was high time to do what had been proposed — to give me Resident's pay. Imprisoning rupees and reading are now my engagements, and I have begun the year with a resolution of making no more suggestions, and of only speaking when spoken to. I do not say this in ill humour — quite the reverse. A screw from Machiavelli supports me. " A man who, instead of acting for the best, acts as he ought, seeks rather his ruin than his preserva- tion *' ' ' Jan. IT. Lord Auckland took a step in sending

an army into this country contrary to his own judgment, and he cares not a sixpence what comes of the policy, so that he gets out of it. All the despatches plainly prove this -, and Macnaghten now begias to see his own false position, suggests remedies, and finds himself for the first time snubbed by the very Governor-General whose letters have been hitherto a fulsome tissue of praise. The Envoy sees that Russia is coming on, that Herat is not what it ought to have been — ours, and his dawning experience tells him that, if not for us, it is against us. What says Lord Auckland ? " I disagree? with you. Yar Mahomed is to be conciliated.

1840.] LETTERS TO DR LORD, 67

Russia is i&iendly to England^ and I do not credit her advance on us, though she may have an expedition agaiast Khiva, I wonder," adds his Lordship to the Envoy, ** that you should countenance attacks on Herat contrary to treaty** (who made that treaty ? Macnaghten !) 5 " that you should seek for more troops in Afghanistan. It is your duty to rid Afghanis- tan of troops. * * All very fine, but mark the result — calamity, loss of influence, and with it loss of rupees. In these important times, what occupies the King and this Envoy ? The cellars of his Majesty*s palace have been used as powder- magazines to prevent a mosque being ''desecrated.** They would have been put in the citadel, but his Majesty objected, as they overlooked his harem ! This objection dire necessity has removed> and to the citadel they have gone. Read the enclosures, and see what is said, of Colonel Dennie*s occu- pying, not the palace, but a house outside, held formerly by sweepers and Hindoos! From this, in the midst of winter, though Brigadier, he has been ejected) but he declares before God that it shall be the Grovernor-Greneral alone who turns him.out. These are the occupations of the King and Envoy. See what Sir W. Cotton says of it. In Persia, in Egypt, in Muscat, the guests of the Sovereigns occupy palaces, and Shah Soojah declares he will resign his throne if he be so insulted — ^insulted by the contamination of those men who bled for him and placed him where he is. What, my dear Lord, do I mean by all this ? Ex uno disce omnes. Be silent, pocket your pay, do nothing but what you are ordered, and you will give high satisfaction. They will sacrifice you and me, or any one,, without caring a straw. This does not originate from vice, I believe, but

68 S/ie ALEXANDER BURNES, [1832.

from ignorance. Drowning men eatch at straws, and when- ever anything goes wrong, other backs must bear the brand. An expose of the policy from the day we were bound hand and foot at Lahore, tiU Shah Soojah threatened to resign his throne because of the cellars of his palace being occupied by munitions of war when Russia was on the Oxus, would make a book which all future diplomatists could never in blunder surpass 5 but why should if be otherwise? The chief priest, ere he started, asked if Khiva were on the Indus ! Bah ! I blame the Grovernor-General for little \ if he is a timid man, he is a good man. W. hoodwinked him about Caubul when I was here 5 another now hoodwinks him. The one cost us two millions, the other will cost us ten. His Lordship has just written to. me to give him my say on public matters. Am I a fool ? He does not want truth j he wants support, and when I can give it I shall do so

loudly) when I cannot, I shall be silent * 'Jan. 26.

They have been at me again to write " on the prospects of the restored Grovernment," as I think I told you before. I am no such gaby. If they really wanted truth, I would give it cordially, but it is a cniming-in, a coincidence of views, which they seek ; and I can go a good way, but my conscience has not so much stretch as to approve of this

dynasty. But, mum — let that be between ourselves '

' Feb. 18. The Envoy is, or pretends to be, greatly annoyed at my being left out of the list of the honoured, and has written four letters on it 5 three to me, and one to NicoLson. I am not in the least surprised. Every month brings with it proofs of Lord A.'s hostility or dislike. Serves me right.

184a] PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE, 69

I ought never to have come here, or allowed myself to be pleased with fair though false words. As a sample, look ; they burked the paragraph on me in Sir John (Baron) Keane*s despatch because I was a political. Next fight at Khelat, the paragraph on the political Bean is printed. I bide my time, and I may be set down as highly presumptuous^

but if I live, I expect to be a G.C.B. instead of a C.B. *

' February 28. You tell me to accept the Readency at Candahar 5 it is well I refused it. The Court of Directors have officially sanctioned it, and Lord Auckland says I am to have Resident's pay, but to be Political Agent ! Did you ever ? However, my refusal had gone in, backed by Mac- naghten, and they make me Resident at Cauhul, but I expect nothing from them afler such base ingratitude. The reasons why I refused Candahar were, that I should be as dependent there as here, with a certainty of collision in Herat affairs, over which I was to have ''some control." Now I could not have had that without making my silence my dishonesty, and I resolved on '* biding my time" here. I have heard no more of the Shah*s move to Candahar ; it is necessary on many accounts 5 but it may not take place on that ac- count ' 'March 4. There is no two days* fixity of purpose

— ^no plan of the fiiture policy, external or internal, on which you can depend a week. The bit-by-bit system prevails. Nothing comprehensive is looked to 5 the details of the day suffice to fill it up, and the work done is not measured by its importance, but by being work, and this work consists of details and drawing money. We are in a fair way of provmg all Mr Elphinstone said in his letter to me, and I

70 5/i? ALEXANDER BURNES, [1840

for one begin to think Wade will be the luckiest of us all to be away from the break-down 5 for, unless a new leaf is turned over, break down we shall.*

Though condemned thus painfully to official inactivity, the restless spirit of Alexander Burnes was continually embracing all the great questions which the antagonism of England and Russia in Central Asia were then throwing up for practical solution. He had made up his own mind very distinctly upon the subject. He somewhat exaggerated the aggressive designs of Russia ; but, starting from such premises, he was logically right in contending that our best pohcy was to strengthen ourselves in Afghanistan, and not to endeavour either to oppose by arms or to baffle by diplomacy the progress of the Muscovite in Central Asia. There were other British officers, however, in the Afghan dominions at that time, who, thinking less of Russian aggressiveness and more of Central Asian provocations, felt that much good might be effected by peaceful mediation — especially by the good work of endeavouring to liberate the Russian subjects, who had been carried off into slavery by the man-stealers of those barbarous States.* It remained for a later generation to endorse these views, and to believe that England and Russia might act harmoniously together in Central Asia in the interests of universal humanity. Very steadfastly and persistently did Burnes set his face against them. His own opinions were stated most emphat- ically in letters, which he addressed to Sir William Mac-

* I touch but cursorily on this subject here, because it will be illustrated more fiilly in subsequent Memoirs of Arthur ConoUy and D'Arcy Todd.

1840.] RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA, 71

naghten in this year : ' I have just received your very inter- esting letter of the 13th/ he wrote to the Envoy, on the 1 6th of April, 'with its enclosure, an extract from the Go- vernor-Grenerars letter regarding the designs of Russia. I now feel somewhat at ease since his Lordship has become cognizant of the real state of affairs on our frontier, as we shall no longer be acting on a blind reliance that the expe- dition to Khiva was small, and would be unsuccessful, when it is an army composed of the 61ite of their empire, and has made good its lodgment on the delta of the Oxus. Afler the Punic faith which Russia has exhibited, I confess I was astonished to see Lord Clanricarde put trust in what Count Nesselrode told him of the strength of the Russian force, and you may rely upon it that we are better judges of what Russia is doing in Turkistan than our ambassador at St Petersburg, and I hope the correctness of all our information from first to last will now lead to the most implicit reliance being hereafter placed upon it. One correspondent may exaggerate and distort, but it is not in the nature of falsev- hood to be consistent -, and of inconsistency we have had none, the cry being that Russia has entered Turkistan with the design of setting up her influence there, and that (whether her ruler or ministers admit it or not) her object is to disturb us in Afghanistan. European intelligence confirms all this 5 and with a failing peculiarly her own, Russia has, for the present, left the Turkish question to be settled by England and France, and even in her generosity agreed to open the Black Sea. "Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes." Firmly impressed with these views, they tincture ell my thoughts and opinions, and, in consequence, lead me

7a 5/^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1840.

to hope that our every nerve will be strained to consolidate Afghanistan, and that nothing of any kind, political or military, may take place beyond the passes. Had we force sufficient, the occupation of Balkh might not be a bad military move, and one which would, in truth, show " an imposing attitude;*' but with Russia at Khiva, and negoti- ating for the residence of a permanent ambassador at Bok- hara, we shall at once precipitate a collision with her by such a step, and with our present force I consider it hopeless, even if our rear were clear, which it is not. The attitude of the Sikhs towards us is that of undisguised hostility, and on both our front and rear we have cause for deep reflection — I will not say alarm, for I do not admit it 5 we have only to play the good game we have begun, and exhibit Shah Soojah as the real King, to triumph over our difficul- ties. The security from that triumph, however, is not an advance to Turkistan, but first a quieting of our rear, and redress of grievances at home. You will guess, then, what I think of any of our officers going in any capacity to Turkistan, to Khiva, Bokhara, or Kokund. I regarded Abbott's departure to Khiva as the most unhappy step taken dunng the campaign, and his language at Khiva, which will all be repeated to Russia, places us in a position far more equivocal than Russia was placed in by Vicovitch being here. We had no ground of complaint against Dost Mahomed (till he joined our enemies), and two great Euro- pean powers merely wished for his friendship 5 but Russia has at Khiva just grounds for complaint, and still Captain Abbott tells the Khan that he must have no communication witli Russia, but release her slaves, and have done with her.

x840.] RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. 73

It is well to remember that Russia has extensive trade pass- ing through Khiva, and that the proclamation of war declares that the object of the expedition is to redress the merchants for exactions. Is England to become security for barbarous hordes some thousands of miles from her frontier? If not. Captain Abbott's promises and speeches must compromise us. I observe you proceed on the sup- position that Russia wants only her slaves released, but this is one of ten demands only, and instead of our language, therefore, being pertinent on that head, that we insist on her relief, it means nothing, for Captain Abbott tells us that the Khan had offered to release them all, and I know that the King of Bokhara has made a treaty to that effect, and acts up to itj for Captain A. likewise confirms the information frequently reported, that the King there is bought by Russia. We have in consequence, I think, no business in Khiva, and, however much we may wish it, none in .Bokhara. The remaining State is Kokund, and we shall know the probable good of a connection with it. In my letter to A. Conolly, 1 enclosed some "observations on sending a mission to Khiva,'* but I did not then discuss the policy of the King. I merely, in reply to Conolly 's request for hints, pointed out the difficulties of the road and of communication when there. But my first question is the cui bono of this mission in a political point of view ? In a geographical one, no one can doubt its high expediency. What are we to get from it ? Nothing, I see, but to attach to ourselves just and deserved reproach for interfering with Russia in ground already occupied by her merchants, and ground far beyond our own line of operations. The

74 S/I^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [18^

measure will irritate Russia, who will at once march on Balkh to assert her just position, as she calls it, in Central Asia) and then, indeed, the Governor-Grenerars surmises will be proved. It will give uneasiness to " all surrounding States, and add difficulty to the game which we have to play." But one very serious obstacle to all interference with Turkistan has apparently been overlooked. Russia is not engaged alone in the enterprise. She has her ally of Persia, and ambassadors, too, to seek the release of the Persian slaves. Are we prepared to insist on this, and reconstruct the whole fabric of society by marching back some two or three hundred thousand slaves? If not, our proceedings are neither consonant with humanity nor the rights of nations ', and if they are, the only chance of success is to leave Russia alone, or to aid her with a military force 5 the former the only judicious course for us to pursue. I have been thus earnest on this very momentous question from the anxiety which I feel to see our cause flourish, and our good name preserved. It is not the question of Lord or Conolly going. That is a mere trifle, which does not call for a moment's consideration. I believe the deputation of any one to Turkistan at this time to be a serious error. If it is to be, I shall, of course, do all I can by information, and by getting good people to assist the officers sent 5 but I hope you will excuse my beseeching you to weigh the step well before it is taken. Rely upon it, the English Cabinet can alone settle this question, and it must be at London or St Petersburg, and not at Kokund, Bokhara, or Khiva, that we are to counteract Russia. Let us crown the passes. Let an engineer be forthwith sent to map them, and let

1840.] RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA, 75

grain (as you have just proposed) be stored behind them at Bameean. Let alarm be allayed by our not appearing to stir overmuch J for Caubul is the place for the corps d'arm^, and not Bameean^ which should be its outwork, and, as such, strengthened. We should have, done with dealing with the Oosbegs, for it is time. In Khiva we have our agent detained. At Bokhara, poor Stoddart*s captivity reflects seriously upon our character, and damages it here 5 while in Kokund I see no possible good likely to flow, even from the most splendid success attending the agent, and, on the contrary, much chance of evil.*

Some three or four weeks after this letter was written, Macnaghten orally proposed that Burnes himself should proceed on a mission to the Russian camp. Burnes replied that he would go if he were ordered 5 and after the inter- view, having thought well over the matter, he wrote on the same evening a letter to the Envoy, saying : * With re- ference to our conversation this morning, when I stated my readiness to proceed to Greneral PerofFski*s camp with ala- crity, if the Govemor-Greneral would but grant to me cre- dentials and powers to act as stated in Lord Palmerston*s letter — i, e. to tell the Russian General if he sought to sub- vert the political influence of the Khan of Khiva, after due reparation had been made to him, and did not withdraw his force. Great Britain would consider Russia in the light of an enemy — another view of the subject has since struck me — ^Will you, as the representative of the British nation, grant to me such credentials and powers ? Lord Auckland requested you to communicate with the Russian General by a messenger, but the interests of the public service have

76 S/J? ALEXANDER BURNES, [184a

pointed out to you the propriety of deviating from such in- structions in so far as to send an officer instead of a messen- ger. With the explicit views, then, of the British Cabinet transmitted officially to you by the Governor-Greneral, do you feel yourself authorized to draw up credentials em- powering me to go as far as the Secretary of State for Fo- reign Affairs has gone ? If so, I am ready, without awaiting the Grovernor-General's reply, to undertake the mission, as I then see in it a chance of gaining the ends of our Govern- ment without risking any httle reputation I may have. If, on the other hand, you merely mean to convey to Greneral Peroffeki a hope, or request by letter, that he wiU lot ex- ceed the Emperor's instructions, this will be but th *■ duty of a courier, and as my personal insight would thus fell be- low zero, I have no desire to undertake the journey 5 though even then, as I have reported to Conolly and yourself, I will proceed there, if you are of opinion it is desirable, and you think I can advance the public interests. If, however, you do not feel yourself authorized to grant to me the powers which seem necessary, your letter of to-day to Lord Auck- land may, perhaps, draw such credentials from his Lordship, and if so, I shall hold myself in readiness on their arrival here to follow Conolly to the Russian camp, taking, if pos- sible, the Oxus as my route, by which I could reach Khiva with great expedition, and to political objects add a know- ledge of that river, now so important to us.'

But before there was any necessity to bring this question to the point of practical solution, intelligence was received at Caubul which consigned it to the limbo of vanities and abortions. Another mission had proceeded to the Russian

i840.] RE-APPEARANCE OF DOST MAHOMED, 77

camp — ^a mission from Heaven in the shape of that great white enemy, which was destined at a later date to put our own armies to confusion. Peroflski's legions were arrested by the destroying snow, and decimated by pestilence and famine. This source of inquietude was, therefore, removed, and Bumes was again driven back into inactivity.* The summer passed quietly over his head, but the autumn found him and all his countrymen at Caubul in a state of extreme excitement. Dost Mahomed was again in arms against the Feringhees, who had driven him from his country. He was coming down from the regions beyond the Hindoo- Koosh, raising the tribes on the way, and calling on the children of the Prophet to expel the usurping unbelievers. A British force was sent into the Kohistan, under the com« mand of Sir Robert Sale 5 and Burnes went with it in chief

* When men — especially men of active habits — ^have veiy little to do, they are frequently disturbed by small troubles, which, at times of greater activity, would pass imnoticed. At this period Bumes was greatly irritated by some comments on Affghan af- fairs in the Calcutta and Agra papers. With reference to a letter in the Agra Ukkbar, which had reflected on some of the pro- ceedings of Dr Lord, Bumes wrote to his friend, saying : * I think that a simple letter under your name calling the man a cowardly slanderer and a villain, or some such choice word, would be a good mode of rebutting him.* As if trath were to be established by calling men hard names I In another letter Bumes wrote to Lord : * You have a viper in your Artillery named Kaye, who writes in the Hur- karUy &c. &c. The viper referred to is the writer of this book. I had, as a young man, perhaps a little too fond of my pen, emphat- ically protested against our entire policy in Afghanistan, and pre- dicted its speedy collapse — ^which prediction, in the first flush of success, my countrymen in India, with few exceptions, were wont to deride.

78 5/y? ALEXANDER BURNES, [184a

political control of the expedition. How badly everything fared with us at the first may be gathered from the fact that the latter wrote to the Envoy, saying that there was nothing left for our troops but to fall back on Caubul, and there to concentrate all our strength. This was on the 2nd of November — a day of evil omen ; for then Bumes's days were numbered by the days of a single year. He saw the last victorious charge of the Ameer 5 he saw our troops fly- ing before him 3 he saw his friends and associates, Broadfoot and Lord, fall mortally wounded from their horses j and he himself narrowly escaped. This was but the darkest hour before the dawn. On the following day Dost Mahomed surrendered himself to the British Envoy, and, instead of a formidable enemy, became a harmless State prisoner. Then the spirits of Burnes and of his associates at Caubul began to rise. Writing a few weeks afterwards to one of his brothers, he said : * Caubul, November 24, 1840. I have been too much occupied these two months past to write to you, and though it has pleased Providence to crown our efforts with success, and to permit me to play a prominent part, I have yet to mourn the loss of two very dear friends, Dr Lord and Lieutenant Broadfoot. How I escaped un- scathed God only knows. I have a ball which fell at my feet, and of three political officers, I have alone lived to tell the tale. Make no parade of these facts. My interview with Dost Mahomed Khan was very interesting and very affectionate. He taimted me with nothing, said I was his best friend, and that he had come in on a letter I had writ- ten to him. This I disbeHeve, for we followed him from house to house, and he was obliged to surrender. On that

1840.] DOST MAHOMED PENSIONED, 79

letter, however, I hope I shaU have got for him an annual stipend of two lakhs of rupees instead of one. On our parting, I gave him an Arab horse ; and what think you he gave me ? His own, and only sword, and which is stained with blood. He left this for India some fourteen days ago, and is to live at Loodiana. In Kohistan I saw a failure of our artillery to breach, of our European soldiers to storm, and of our cavalry to charge j and yet Grod gave us the victory. And now Kumick Singh is dead, and Now Nihal, the new ruler of the Punjab, killed while attending his father's funeral by a gate falling on him, Shere Singh reigns in his stead. Read the prediction in my Travels, vol. i., pp. 298-9, second edition, on this head. If we could turn over a new leaf here, we might soon make Afghanistan a barrier. You regret about my name and the Russians. Nine-tenths of what is attributed to me I never said, but I did say the Russians were coming, and that, too, on 31st of October, 1839, and come they did 5 and Lord Auckland would never believe it till March, 1840! He heard from London and from Khiva of the failure simultaneously, and they wonder why we did not hear sooner. We have no mail coaches here, and hence the explanation. From Orenburg to London is eighteen days 5 from Bokhara to Caubul is thirty. We have no intelligence yet of a second expedition, and I hope none will come. The state of Afghanistan for the last year wiU show you how much reason we had to fear the Czar*s approach.*

After this the horizon was clear for a little space, and there was a lull in the political atmosphere. But with the new year came new troubles. There was a crisis at

8o SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [1841.

Herat 5 and the tribes in Western Afghanistan were rising against the King and his supporters. With these things Bumes had httle to do in any active capacity. He wrote letters and minutes, and gave advice, clearly seeing that everything was going wrong. ' I am now a highly paid idler,* he wrote to one of his brothers, * having no less than 3 joo rupees a month, as Resident at Caubul, and bemg, as the lawyers call it, only counsel, and that, too, a dumb one — by which I mean that I give paper opinions, but do not work them out.' He had, however, become more contented with his lot. He ceased to chafe at what seemed, for a time at least, to be inevitable 5 and enjoying, as best he could, the blessings of the present, he looked forward to a future, then apparently not very remote, when his energies might find fi-eer scope for action, for it was believed that a higher official post would soon be found for Macnaghten. He was in excellent health at this time, and his fine animal spirits sparkled pleasantly in all his letters to his friends. On the 1st of April he wrote to Montrose, saying : * We had no sooner got Dost Mahomed Khan into our power than Herat breaks with us, and the Punjab becomes a scene of strife. Out of both contingencies we might extract good — real, solid good 5 we may restore the lost wings of Af- ghanistan, Herat and Peshawur, to Shah Soojah, and thus enable him to support himself, free us from the expense of Afghanistan, and what would be better, with- draw our regular army within the Indus, leaving Caubul as an outpost, which we could thus succour with readiness. ... I lead, however, a very pleasant life, and if rotundity and heartiness be proofs of health, I have them. My house

1841.] HIS LIFE AT CAUBUL, 81

I taboo at all hours for breakfast, which I have long made a public meal. I have covers laid for eight, and half a dozen of the officers drop in as they feel disposed every morning, discuss a rare Scotch breakfast of smoked fish, salmon grills, devils, and jellies, puiF away at their cigars till ten (the hour of assembly being nine), then I am left to myself till evening, when my friend Broadfoot (who is my assistant) and I sit down to our quiet dinner, and discuss with our Port men and manners. Once in every week I give a party of eight, and now and then I have my intimates alone, and as the good river Indus is a channel for luxuries as well as commerce, I can place before my friends at one- third in excess of the Bombay price my champagne, hock, madeira, sherry, port, claret, sauteme, not forgetting a glass of cura9oa and maraschino, and the hermetically sealed sal- mon and hotch-potch (veritable hotch-potch, all the way frae Aberdeen), for deuced good it is, the peas as big as if they had been soaked for bristling, I see James Duke is an alderman of London 5 he will be Lord Mayor, and then all the smacks of Montrose will flee to London with fine young men for his patronage. A Duke and a Mayor ! These are wonderful changes, but I am glad of it, for he is said to be a real good fellow, and deserves his prosperity. I remember he used to sit before us in the Kirk, and in his hat were written, *' Remember the eighth commandment and Golgotha,** so he will be a terror to evil-doers assuredly. •Bravo, say I. I wish I were provost mysel* here ; I would be as happy as the Lord Mayor.*

It is not improbable that the enforced inactivity of which Alexander Burnes, at this period of his career, so often

VOL. II. 6

82 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES, [184X.

wrote^ was in one sense greatly to his advantage. It often happens that men who lead very active and stirring lives tail, in the midst of their day-to-day excitements^ to take that just view of surrounding circumstances which they v^ould have taken, with more leisure on their hands and better opportunities of far-reaching observation. We cannot ' see, as from a tower, the end of all,' when we are wrestling with a crowd at its base. Burnes, as a looker-on, saw clearly and distinctly what Macnaghten did not see — that we were interfering a great deal too much in Afghanistan, and that the best thing for the restored monarchy would be that we should take less trouble to support it. After an outbreak, fatally mismanaged by the Western Ghilzyes, he wrote to Major Lynch, in June, saying : ' I am not cogniz- ant of all which you relate regarding affairs in your quarter, but I am sorry to tell you that I am one of those altogether opposed to any further fighting in this country, and that I consider we shall never settle Afghanistan at the point of the bayonet. And this opinion, which I have so long held, I am glad to see has been at length adopted in Calcutta, and will be our future guide. As regards the Ghilzyes, in- deed, immense allowances ought to be made for them 5 they were, till within three generations, the Kings of Afghanistan, and carried their victorious arms to the capital of Persia. It is expecting too much, therefore, to hope for their being at once peaceful subjects.* And again on the ist of August, to another correspondent : ' Pottinger undertakes an awful risk in China. M'Neill ought not to go to Persia 3 he de- serves Constantinople, and I hope will get it. Lord Auck- land will not pardon poor Todd, and here again I predicted

1841.] PREDICTIONS OF EVIL, 83

failure there, and am scowled at for being a true prophet j but certes, if Herat has gone over to Persia we are in a greater mess than ever, but I hope the return of our ambas- sador to Persia will set all this right. For my part, I would send no one to Persia or to Herat 5 I would withdraw all but two brigades within the Indus, and these I would with- draw, one in next yeaJ», and one in the year after next, and leave the Shah to his own contingent and his Afghans, and I, as Envoy, would stake my character on this — ^We shall be ruined if this expense goes on/

At last, in this autumn of 1841, news came that Sir William Macnaghten had been appointed Governor of Bombay; but, even then, there were reports that some veteran political officer would be sent up from the Provinces to occupy his seat. It was a period of distressing doubt and anxiety to the expectant minister. In the midst of his perplexities, he was wont to seek solace in his books. His favourite author was Tacitus, in whose writings he read lessons of wisdom, which, he said, were of infinite service to him in the practical affairs of life. Some extracts from the journal, which he kept in this year, will show how, in the enforced inactivity of his anomalous position, he gathered knowledge from his library, which he might, some day, he thought, turn to good account. At all events, such studies diverted his mind and alleviated the pains of the suspense to which he was condemned : ' Caubul, August 13. Read in the thirteenth and fourteenth books of the Annals of Tacitus. What lessons of wisdom and knowledge — how the human mind and its passions are laid bare ! I drink in Taatus, and, perhaps, with the more relish, that his lessons

84 S/I^ ALEXANDER BURNES, [1841.

are of practical use ' ' August 19. Horace Walpole*s

letters, how inimitable ! He is only surpassed by Byron, of all letter-writers I have read 3 yet Walpole's detaib of trifles, and trifling on details, are inimitable. I have got a grand edition, and eke out the six volumes, that I may

enjoy it all to my full * 'Aug. 24. Reading Sir Sidney

Smith's Hfe. It supports an opinion of mine, that all great

men have more or less charlatanerie ' ' Aug. 26. This

is assuredly one of the idle stages in my life. I do nothing for the public, unless it be giving advice, but, as I have none to perform, unless it be to receive my 3 joo rupees a month. At Bhooj, in 1829, 1 had similar idleness, and I improved myself. Again, in 1835, ^ ^^ similarly situated, and since May, 1839, ^ ^^^® \it&CL so circumstanced here. I conclude that my pay is assigned to me for past conduct and duties 5 however, as my Lord Auckland is about to depart, I have little chance of being disturbed in my lair in his day 5 it may be otherwise. To study Tacitus is as pleasant as to write despatches * ' Sept. i. An ex- pression from Macnaghten to-day that Shah Soojah was an old woman, not fit to rule his people, with divers othei condemnations. Ay, see my Travels, and as far back as 1831 — ten years ago. Still I look upon his fitness or unfit- ness as very immaterial 3 we are here to govern for him, and must govern ' 'Sept. 10. Somewhat contem- plative. This is certainly an important time for me. Of supersession I have no fear, but those in power may still keep Macnaghten over me, and much as he objects to this, it enables Lord Auckland to move off, and evade his pro- mises to me. Alas ! I did not believe my first interview

i84i.'j SELF-COMMUNINGS. 85

with the long^ tall^ gaunt man on the couch at Bowood

was to end thus * ' Sept. 22. The Envoy is afraid of

the King's health. A native predicts his death 5 he is not long-lived, I plainly see. If he dies, we were planning the modus operandi, I offered to go to Candahar, and bring up the new King Timour, and I predict he will make a good ruler. I question myself how far I am right in avoid- ing correspondence with Lord Lansdowne, Mr Elphinstone, and all my numerous friends in England, or even with Lord Auckland ; yet I believe I am acting an honest part to Macnaghten and to Government, and yet neither the one nor the other, I fear, thank me j yet it is clear that if I had carried on a hot correspondence with Lord Auckland, as he wished me, I must have injured Macnaghten, and had I, in this correspondence, evaded those points on which his Lordship was interested, I should have injured myself in his eyes, and consequently as a public servant. In after days I hope to be able to applaud my own discretion in this my difficult position 5 but I may fail altogether by my

honesty, though I have always found it the best policy *

' Sept. 24. I have read with great relish and enjoyment the first volume of Warren Hastings's Life, and with great admiration for the man, founded on his many virtues and noble fortitude, and that, too, on the evidence of his letters,

and not his biography ' ' October 16. I seem hourly

to lose my anxiety for power and place 5 yet away with such feehngs, for if I be worth anything, they ought to have no hold of me. I have just read in Guizot's Life of Washington : " In men who are worthy of the destiny (to govern), all weariness, all sadness, though it be warrantable.

86 Sm ALEXANDER BURNES, [1841.

is weakness ; their mission is toil ; their reward, the success of their works 5 *' but still in toil I shall become weary if employed. Will they venture, after all that has been pro- mised, and all that I have done, to pass me over ? I doubt it much 'y if so, the past will not fix a stain on me, and the future is dark and doubtful. I have been asking myself it I am altogether so well fitted for the supreme control here as I am disposed to believe. I sometimes think not, but I have never found myself fail in power when unshackled. On one point I am, however, fiilly convinced, I am unfit for the second place 3 in it my irritation would mar all business, and in supersession there is evidently no recourse but £ngland. I wish this doubt were solved, for anxiety is painfid. One trait of my character is thorough serious- ness 'y I am indiiFerent about nothing I undertake — in feet, if I undertake a thing I cannot be indifferent.*

The anniversary of his arrival in India came round. Twenty years had passed since he had first set his foot on the strand of Bombay. Seldom altogether free from super- stitions and presentiments, he entered upon this 31st of October, 1841, with a vivid impression that it would bring forth something upon which his whole future life would turn. ' Ay ! what will this day bring forth ? * he wrote in his journal, ' the anniversary of my twenty years* service in India. It will make or mar me, I suppose. Before the sun sets I shall know whether I go to Europe or succeed Macnaghten.* But the day passed, and the momentous question was not settled. Then November dawned, and neither Burnes nor Macnaghten received the desired letters from Calcutta — only vague newspaper reports, which added

i/l4i.] INSURRECTIONS IN AFGHANISTAN. 87

new fuel to the doubts and anxieties of the expectant Envoy. 'I grow very tired of praise,* he wrote in his journal, ' and I suppose that I shall get tired of censure in time/ This was his last entry. There was no more either of praise or of censure to agitate him in this world. Already the bitter fruit of folly and injustice had ripened upon the tree of Retribution, and the nation which had done this wrong thing was about to be judged by the ' eternal law, that where crime is, sorrow shall answer it.' The Afghans are an avaricious and a revengefid people. Our only settled policy in Afghanistan was based upon the faith that by grati- fying the one passion we might hold the other in control. So money was spent freely in Afghanistan. We bought safet}*^ and peace. But when it was found that this enormous ex- penditure was impoverishing our Indian £mpire, and that the Afghans were still crying ' Give — ^give ! * we were driven upon the impopular necessity of retrenchment, and it ceased to be worth the while of the people to tolerate our occupation of the country. First one tribe and then another rose against us; and at last the people at the capital began to bestir themselves. Already, on the ist of November, were the streets of Caubul seething with insurrection, and the house of Sir Alexander Bumes was in the city perilously exposed to attack. His Afghan servants told him that he was in danger, and exhorted him to with- draw to the cantonments. He said that he had done the Afghans no injury 5 why, then, should they injure him ? He could not think that any real danger threatened him, and he retired to rest at night with little fear of the results of the morrow. Little fear T should write, of his own

88 Slli ALEXANDER BURNES. [1841.

persoDal safety j but he saw with sufficient distinctness that a great national crisis was approaching. When, on that evening, his moonshee, Mohun Lai, who had accompanied him for many years in his wanderings, warned him of the approaching danger, he rose from his chair, and made what to his faithful assistant appeared an ' astonishing speech,' to the effect that the time had arrived for the English to leave the country.* But he could not be induced to adopt any precautions. He said that if he sent for a guard to protect his house, it would seem as though he were afraid.

• I give Mohun Lal*s own words, which are all the more inter- esting for the eccentricities of the phraseology : * On the 1st of November,* he wrote to Mr Colvin, private secretary to the Governor- General, * I saw Sir Alexander Bumes, and told him that the con- federacy has been grown very high, and we should fear the conse- quence. He stood up from his chair, sighed, and said, he knows nothing but the time has arrived that we should leave this country/ In a letter to Dr James Bumes, there is a similar statement, with the addition that, upon the same night, an Afghan chief, named Taj Mahomed, called upon Bumes, to no purpose, with a like warning : * On the first of November I saw him at evening, and informed him, according to the conversation of Mahomed Meerza Khan, our great enemy, that the chiefe are contriving plans to stand against us, and therefore it will not be safe to remain without a sufficient guard in the city. He replied that if he were to ask the Envoy to send him a strong guard, it will show that he was fearing ; and at the same (time) he made an astonishing speech, by saying that the time is not far when we must leave this country. Taj Mahomed, son of Gholam Mahomed Khan, the Douranee chief, came at night to him, and informed what the chiefs intended to do, but he tumed him out under the pretended aspect that we do not care for such things. Our old friend, Naib Sheriff, came and asked him to allow his son, with one hundred men, to remain day and night in his place, till the Ghilzyc affair is settled, but he did not agree.'

1841.] LAST DA YS. 89

So Alexander Bumes laid himself down to rest 5 and slept. But with the early morrow came the phantoms of new troubles. Plainly the storm was rising. First one, then another, with more or less authority, came to warn him that there was * death in the pot.' The first, who called before daybreak, was not admitted, and Bumes slept on. But when the Afghan minister, Oosman Khan, came to the house, the servants woke their master, who rose and dressed himself, and went forth to receive the Wuzeer. It was no longer possible to look with incredulity upon the signs and symptoms around him. The streets were alive with insurgents. An excited crowd was gathering round his house. Still there might be time to secure safety by flight. But vainly did Oosman Khan implore Burnes to accompany him to the cantonments. He scorned to quit his post ; he believed that he could quell the tumult 5 and so he rejected the advice that might have saved him.

That the city was in a state of insurrection was certain ; but it appeared that a prompt and vigorous demonstration on the part of the British troops in cantonments might quell the tumult 5 so he wrote to Macnaghten for support, and to some friendly Afghan chiefs for assistance. It was then too late. Before any succour could arrive, the crowd before his house had begun to rage furiously, and it was plain that the insurgents were thirsting for the blood of the English officers. From a gallery which ran along the upper part of the house, Bumes, attended by his brother Charles, and his friend William Broadfoot, addressed him- self to the excited mob. They yelled out their execration and defiance in reply, and it was plain that no expostula«

90 SIR ALEXANDER BURNES. [1841.

tions or entreaties could turn them aside from their purpose. The enemy had begun to fire upon them^ and, hopeless as retaliation and resistance might be, there seemed to be nothing left to the English officers but to sell their lives as dearly as they could. Broadfoot was soon shot dead. Then the insurgents set fire to £urnes*s stables, rushed into his garden, and summoned him to come down. All hope of succour from cantonments had now gone. Still he might purchase his own and his brother's safety by appealing to the national avarice of the Afghans. He offered them large sums of money if they would suffer him to escape. Still they called upon him to leave off firing and to come down to the garden. At last he consented, and the brothers, conducted by a Cashmeree Mussulman, who had sworn to protect them, went down to the garden; but no sooner were they in the presence of the mob than their guide cried out, ^ Here is Sekimdur Burnes ! * And straightway the insurgents fell upon them and slew them.

And so, on the 2nd of November, 1841, fell Alexander Burnes, butchered by an Afghan mob. He was only thirty-six years of age. That he was a remarkable man, and had done remarkable things, is not to be doubted. He was sustained, from first to last, by that great enthusiasm^ of which Sir John Malcolm has spoken, as the best security for a successful Indian career. He was of an eager, im- pulsive, romantic temperament ; but he had a sufficiency of good strong practical sense to keep him from running into any dangerous excesses. He had courage of a high order 5 sagacity, penetration, and remarkable quickness of observation. It has been said of him that he was unstable.

1841.] HIS CHARACTER. 91

that his opinions were continually shifting^ and that what he said on one day he often contradicted on the next. The fact is, that he was singularly unreserved and outspoken, and was wont to set down in his correspondence with his familiar friends all the fleeting impressions of an active and imaginative mind. But on great questions of Central- Asian policy he was not inconsistent. The confusion was in the minds of others, not in his own mind. He had strong opinions, which he never ceased to express, so long as it was possible to give them practical effect 5 but, over- ruled by higher authority, and another course of policy substituted for that which he would have pursued, he con- sented to act, in a ministerial or executive capacity, for the furtherance of the great object of national safety which he believed might have been better attained in another way. When he found that his views were not the views of the Government which he served, he offered to withdraw from the scene in favour of some more appreciative agent 5 but he was told that his services were needed, so he consented to work against the grain.* I have already expressed my

♦ Bumes often stated fliis very distinctly in his correspondence, and was very anxious that it should be clearly known and remem- bered. I give the following, from a letter written at the end of 1^39) because it is one of his most emphatic utterances on the sub- ject, and contains also a passage on his increased sense of responsi- bility, written in a more solemn strain than the general bulk of his correspondence : * All my implorations to Government to act with promptitude and decision had reference to doing something when Dost Mahomed was King, and all this they have made to appear in support of Shah Soojah being set up ! But again, I did advocate the setting up of Shah Soojah, and lent all my aid, name, and know- ledge to do it. But when was this ? When my advice had been

92 5//? ALEXANDER BURNES. [1841.

belief that in so doing he did what was right. Doubtless^ he had his failings, as all men have. But he died young. And I am inclined to think that, if his life had been spared, he would have attained to much higher distinction 5 for all that he lacked to qualify him for offices of large responsi- bility was a greater soberness of judgment, which years would almost certainly have brought. As it was, few men have achieved, at so early an age, so much distinction, by the force of their own personal character, as was achieved by Alexander Burnes.

rejected, and the Grovemment were fairly stranded. I first gave opinions, and then asked leave to withdraw ; but Lord Auckland proved to me that it would be desertion at a critical moment, and I saw so myself ; but I entered upon the support of his policy not as what was best, but what was best under the circumstances which a series of blunders had produced. To have acted otherwise must have been to make myself superior to the Governor-General, and I saw that I had a duty to my country, ill as the representatives of that country in India had behaved to me, and I bore and forbore in con- sequence. My life has been devoted to my country ; like creeping things, I may have in the outset looked only to personal advantages, but persons have long since given place to things ; I now feel myself at the age of thirty-five, with an onerous load upon me — ^the holy and sacred interests of nations ; and much as men may envy me, I begin sometimes to tremble at the giddy eminence I have already attained. In some respects it is indeed not to be envied, and I only hope that no passion may turn me from the path I tread, and that I may feel the awful responsibility which I have brought upon myselfl*

93

CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY.

[born 1807.— died X842.]

IF the reader, who has followed me through the pre- ceding chapters, remembering what I have written about the characters and the careers of Alexander Bumes and Henry Martjm, can conceive the idea of a man com- bining in his own person all that was excellent and loveable in both, and devoting his life to the pursuit of the objects which each in his turn sought to attain, the image of Arthur ConoUy will stand in full perfection before him. For in him the high courage and perseverance of the ex- plorer were elevated and sublimed by the holy zeal and enthusiasm of the apostle. Ready to dare everything and to suffer everything in a good cause 5 full of faith, and love, and boundless charity, he strove without ceasing for the glory of God and for the good of his fellow-men 3 and in little things and in great, in the daily interests of a gentle life, in which the human affections were never dormant, and in the stem necessities of public service, which for the honour of the nation, for the good of the human race, and for the glory of the religion which he professed and acted, demanded from him the surrender even of that life itself.

94 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY. [1807— aa.

manifested all the noblest self-abnegation of the Hero and the Martyr.

Arthur Conolly was the third of the six sons of a gentle- man^ who, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, went out to India, made a rapid fortune, and returned to spend it in ease and comfort at home. Hs was born in Portland-place, London, in the year 1807 ; and received his education at Rugby. He was not much happier there than was Henry Martyn at the Truro Grammar School. Shy and. sensitive, and of a nature too refined to cope success- fully with the rough realities of public school life, he was not happy there 5 and he often spoke in after-life of the sufferings he endured at ' Mother Bucknell's.' In good time, however, deliverance came.* He was removed

♦ That all this made a strong impression on his mind — ^an im- pression which was never effaced — ^may be gathered from a passage in a letter which he wrote to one of his brothers in 184O1 with refer- ence to the education of a son : * I don't feel anxious to hear,' wrote Arthur, * that he has been sent to England for his education \ for, judging by the majority of young men who are driven through our schools and colleges from their earliest youth upwards, the system of turning boys out from the affectionately constraining influences of their own homes, as soon as they can run, does not produce the most

desirable fruits Under his first instructors, a boy works rather

from fear than from esteem, and is prevented from thinking for him- self, whilst the religion which should be his mainspring is performed before him as a task for mornings and evenings and twice o' Sundays. Societies of little boys certainly teach each other the meannesses whidi they would learn at home, and as for the knowledge of the world, on which so much stress is laid, it is commonly got by young men through channels which greatly diminish the value of the acquisition. These opinions would make me retain a son as long as possible under what Scripture beautifully terms 'Uhe commandment of his father

1832—23.] GOES OUT IV INDIA. 95

from Rugby in 1822, and sent to the Military Seminary of the East India Company. His father had large * interest at the India House,* especially with the Marjoribanks family ^ so in due course, one after the other, he sent all his boys to India.

Arthur, in the first instance, was designed for one of the scientific branches of the Indian Army, and was sent, therefore, to the Company's Military Seminary. But whilst at Addiscombe,* an offer having been made to him of a commission in the Bengal Cavalry, he accepted it, or it was accepted for him. He left the military semin- ary on the 7th of May, 1823, and on the i6th of Jime he quitted England in a vessel bound for Calcutta. There was so much of incident crowded into the latter years of his life, that it is necessary to pass briefly over the chapter of his boyish years.

The ship in which he sailed for India was the Company's

and the law of his mother," even if his home were in England, that he might be kept mispotted from the world, which is the great thing for the happiness of this life as well as for the next' And he added : * I hope he is learning to read and write Hindustani, if not Persian. He will find such knowledge of immense advantage to him, if he ever comes out here ; and if he does not, an induction into Oriental idioms will enrich his mother tongue.'

* As this is the first mention, in the pages of this work, of the old Military Seminary, near Croydon, which was once the nursery of so many heroes, I should not have passed over it without notice, if I had not thought that it would receive fitter illustration in the Memoir which next follows. Arthur ConoUy can hardly be regarded as an * Addiscombe man,' as he never completed the course of educa- tion, but went out to India with what was called a ^ direct appoint- ment'

96 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY, [182^-84.

ship Grenville, which carried Reginald Heber, then newlj consecrated Bishop of Calcutta^ to his diocese. In those days, the first voyage to India of a young writer or a young cadet often exercised an important influence over his whole after-career. Life-long friendships were often made or abiding impressions fixed upon the mind by the opportuni- ties of a life on board ship. It was no small thing for a youth of sixteen, ardent, imaginative, with a vast capacity for good in his nature, to sit daily at the feet of such a man as Bishop Heber. The Bishop has recorded, in one of his letters, the fact that when he was studying the Persian and Hindostanee languages, ' two of the young men on board showed themselves glad to read with him.' Arthur Conolly was one of the two. But he derived better help than this from his distinguished fellow-passenger. The seed of the Word, which then came from the Sower's hand, fell upon good ground and fructified a hundred-fold. In a letter to a friend, Heber wrote, some five weeks after the departure of the Grenville : ' Here I have an attentive audience. The exhibition is impressive and interesting, and the opportunities of doing good considerable.' Among his most attentive hearers was young Arthur Conolly, who took to his heart the great truths which were offered to him, and became from that time rooted and grounded in the saving faith.

The first years of his residence in India did not differ greatly from those of the generality of young military officers, who have their profession to learn in the first in- stance, and in the next to qualify themselves for independent emplojnrnent. He was attached, as a cornet, to the 6th

1824—29.] OVERLAND TO INDIA, 97

Regiment of Bengal Cavalry, and in 1824 and the two fol- lowing years was stationed first at Keitah, ard then at Lo- hargong. In 1825 he obtained his lieutenancy j and in 1827 he fell sick, and was compelled to obtain a furlough to England on medical certificate.

After a year and a half spent in Europe, he was suffici- ently recruited to think of returning to India. In those days, it was the ordinary course for an officer, ' pennitted to return to his duty,* to take a passage in a sailing vessel, steering round the Cape of Good Hope. What is now called somewhat inappropriately the Overland Route, was not then open for passenger-traffic \ and if it had been, it would not have held out much attraction to Arthur Conolly. He desired to return to India really by the Overland Route — ^that is, by the route of Russia and Persia ; and, as he has himself declared, ' the journey was undertaken upon a few days* resolve.* ' Quitting London,* he has recorded in the published account of his travels, 'on the loth of August, 1829, 1 travelled through France and the North of Germany to Hamburg, and embarking on board a steam^vessel at Travemunden on the ist of September, sailed up the Baltic and the Gulf of Finland in four days to St Petersburg.' Such is the first sentence of the two volumes of travels which Arthur Conolly has given to the world. From St Peters- burg he travelled to Moscow, and thence onwards to Tiflis, whence he journeyed forward across the Persian frontier and halted at Tabreez.

It was his original intention, after having reached that

VOL. II. 7

98 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY. [i82^-«a.

place^ to strike down thence to the shores of the Persian Gulf, and there to take ship for Bombay. But the spirit of adventure within him grew stronger as he proceeded on his journey, and he determined to explore at least some portions of Central Asia. There was little known, in those days, about Afghanistan. He might do good service by acquiring information respecting the countries lying be- tween Persia and India, and it suited his humour at that time to make the effort. It was the enterprise of the English- man more than anything else which carried him forward in those early days. He was very young when he started on his journey. He had numbered only twenty-two years ; but he had courage and self-reliance of the highest order 5 and ever as he went, the desire to see more impelled him forward to new fields of adventure. Perhaps there was even then obscurely taking shape within him some pre- visions of the * great game in Central Asia,' which he after- wards believed it was the especial privilege of Great Britain to play.

The winter was spent pleasantly at Tabreez, where the British Mission, of which Sir John Macdonald was then the chief, was located 5 and in the early spring of 1830, having received good encouragement and offers of valu- able assistance from the minister, he made his prepar- ation for a march to Teheran, from which place he pur- posed to attempt a journey, either by way of Khiva, Bok- hara, and Caubul, or through Khorassan and Afghanistan, to the Indus. ' I had the good fortune,* he said, ' to engage as my companion Syud Keramut Ali, an unprejudiced, very clever, and gentlemanly native of Hindostan, who had re-

1830.] ADVENTURES IN THE DESERT 99

«

sided many years in Persia, and was held in great esteem by the English there. I had afterwards much reason to con- gratulate myself upon haring so agreeable a companion^ and it was chiefly owing to his assistance that I safely completed my journey.'

Starting from Teheran on the 6th of April, the travel- lers made their way through Mazenderan to Astrabad, which they reached before the end of the month. There Conolly determined to attempt the route to Khiva. ' Think- ing it necessary/ he said, ' to have a pretence for our journey, I assumed the character of a merchant ; the Syud was to call himself my partner, and we purchased for the ELhiva markets red silk scar&, Kerman shawls, fiirs, and some huge bags of pepper, ginger, and other. spices.* This he after- wards confessed was a mistake, for as he did not play the part of a merchant adroitly, the disguise caused suspicion to alight upon him. What befell the travellers among the Toorkomans, Conolly has himself narrated in the first volume of his published narrative — ^how they crossed the Goorgaon and the Attruck rivers, and rode into the desert with their pretended merchandise on camel-back 5 how they fell into the hands of thieves, who, under pretence of protecting them, robbed them of all that they had got j how they narrowly escaped being murdered, or sold into hopeless captivity j and how at last they obtained deliverance by the opportune arrival of a party of Persian merchants, with whom they returned in safety to Asterabad. He went back re irifectd, but he had spent nearly a month among the Toorkomans, and had penetrated nearly half way to Khiva, and seen more of the country than any European

loo CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY. [183a

had seen before, or — ^with one exception, I believe — ^has ever visited since.

After a brief sojourn at Asterabad, Arthur Conolly, at- tended by Keramut Ali, travelled to Meshed, by the way of Subzawur and Nisharpoor. At the holy city he was detained, money-bound, until the middle of September, when he started, in the trail of an Afghan army under the command of Yar Mahomed, for Herat, the Afghan city which after- wards became so celebrated in Eastern history. Upon all with whom he was associated there the young En^ish officer made a most favourable impression. Another young English officer — Eldred Pottinger — who visited the city some years afterwards, found that Arthur Conolly 's name was great in Herat, and 4iiat many held him in affectionate remembrance. ' I fell in,' says the former in his journal, referring to the year 1838, 'with a number of Oaptain Conolly*s acquaintances. Every person asked after him, and appeared disappointed when I told them I did not know him. In two places, I crossed Mr Conolly's route, and on his account received the greatest hospitality and attention — indeed, more than was pleasant, for such liber- ality required corresponding liberahty upon my part, and my funds were not well adapted for any extraordinary demand upon them. In Herat, Mr Conolly's fame was great. In a large party where the subject of the Europeans who had visited Herat was mooted, ConoUy's name being mentioned, I was asked if I knew him, and on replying, '^ Merely by report," Moollah Mahomed, a Sheeah MooUah of great eminence, calling to me across the room, said, * You have a great pleasure awaiting you. When you see

1830.] A T HERA T,

ici

him^ give him 1117 salutation^ and tell him that I say he has done as much to give the English nation fame in Herat as your -ambassador, Mr Elphinstone, at Peshawur," and in this he was seconded by the great mass present.'

This was truly a great distinction for one so young ; and it was earned, not at all as some later travellers in Mahomedan countries have earned distinction, by assuming disguises and outwardly apostatizing, but by the frankest possible assertion of the character of a Christian gentleman. Moreover, he appeared before the Heratees as a very poor one. He did not go among the Afghans as Elphinstone had gone among them, laden with gifts 5 but as one utterly destitute, seeking occasional small loans to help him on his way. Yet even in these most disadvantageous circum- stances, the nobility of his nature spoke out most plainly j and the very MooUahs, with whom he contended on behalf of his religion, were fain to help him as though he had been one of their sect. He had many warm disputations with these people, and they seem to have honoured him all the more for bravely championing his faith. Young as he was, he felt that our national character had suffered grievously in the eyes of the people of the East by our neglect of the observances of our religion. ' I am sure,' he said, * the bulk of the Mahomedans in this country do not believe that the Feringhees have any real religion. They hear from their friends, who visit India, that we eat abominations, and are never seen to prayj and they care not to inquire more about

lis It is, therefore, greatly to be desired that such

translations of our Scriptures as may invite their study should be sent among these people, in order first to satisfy

I02 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY, [1830-31.

them that we have a religion^ and secondly that they may know what our religion is j in order that they may learn to respect us> which they do not now, and gradually to regard us with kindlier feelings ; for until they do, we shall in vain attempt to propagate the Grospel among them;' and then he proceeded to discourse very shrewdly and in- telligently on some of the principal errors which had been committed by our people in their efforts to propagate the Christian faith — Errors principally arising from our ignorance or disregard of the national characters of those whom we had endeavoured to instruct in the truths of the Gospel.

From Herat, Arthur Conolly proceeded, by the route of Ghirisk, to Candaharj and thence by the vall^ of Pisheen, in which he halted for some time, to Quettah^ and through the Bolan Pass to the country of the Ameers of Sindh. He then journeyed to Bahwulpore and across the great Indian Desert, to the British frontier, which he crossed in the month of January, 1831. At Delhi he met the Govemor-Greneral^ Lord William Bentinck^ to whom he gave an account of his wanderings, and afterwards dropped down to Calcutta by the river route. At the Presidency he drew up an interesting paper on the subject of the * Over- land Invasion of India,' which he printed in one of the Calcutta journals, and afterwards appended to his published travels. In those days, a paper on such a subject showing any real knowledge of the countries traversed was a novelty j but it was reserved for a later generation to discern the large amount of sagacity that informed it.

During the greater part of this year Conolly was em*

1831—33] SLA VE'DEALING IN CENTRAL ASIA, 103

ployed in arranging the information which he had collected in the course of his travels — work in which he was assisted by Mr Charles Trevelyan, then a young civilian of high promise^ who drew up some joint reports with him, which appear to have been prepared partly at Delhi and partly at Meerut, from which latter place the young cavalry officer went to Kumaul. Even at that time it was plain that no- thing had made so strong an impression on the traveller's mind as the knowledge which he had obtained of the abominable man-stealing, slave-dealing practices of the Toorkoman tribes, and the misery which this vile trade in- flicted upon the people of Central Asia. He saw, too, under what strong provocation Russia was labouring, and how impossible it was, with any show of reason and justice, to deny her right to push forward to the rescue of her en- slaved people, and the chastisement of the States which had swept them off and sold them into slavery. ' The case of these people,' he said, ' is deplorable, and in the midst of that laudable sympathy which has b6en excited in this country for the condition of slaves in general, it cannot be doubted that the wretched captives who languish in the steppes of Tartary will have their share, although their situ- ation be unhappily beyond the hope of relief 5 and however important it may be to check the dangerous ambition of a too aspiring nation, humanity will be inclined to wish suc- cess to the Russian cause, were it but to put a period to a system so replete with barbarity as the trade in captives at Khiva.* He was far in advance of his age when he wrote in this strain ; for it was not the fashion in those days, or indeed for more than a quarter of a century afterwards, to

I04 CAPTAIN A ftTHUR CONOLLY, [1833.

look upon Russia as any other than an unscrupulous ag- gressor, driven onward by lust of conquest, and eager to contend with England for the mastery of Hindostan.

But the ardent philanthropist was only a regimental subaltern. It was soon time for Lieutenant Conolly to return to his military duties, so he' rejoined his regiment; and, after a while, at Cawnpore, made the acquaintance of the famous missionary traveller, Joseph Wolff. ' They took sweet counsel together, and they walked in the House of the Lord as friends.' With what deep emotion has Wolff recorded his recollections of that meeting ! * From Delhi,* he says, ' I passed to Agra, and thence to various places until I reached Cawnpore. Hbrb I met with Lieu- tenant Conolly.' The words are printed in Wolffs book in capital letters, as I have printed them here. ' When I travelled first in Khorassaun, in the year 183 1,' he con- tinues, ^ I heard at Meshed by the Jews, that an English traveller had preceded me there, by the name of Arthur Conolly. They described him as a man yirho lived in th^ fear of God and of religion. The moment I arrived he took me to his house, and not only showed me the greatest hospitality, but, as I was at that time short of money, he gave me every assistance in his power — and not only so— he revised my journal for me with the most unaffected kindness. He also collected the Mahomedan Moollahs to his house, and permitted me not only to discuss with them the subject of religion, but gave me most substantial aid in combating their arguments. Conolly was a man possessed of a deep Scriptural knowledge 5 a capital textuary. Various enemies are always found to attack the lone missionary. Nobly and

1833] CONOLLY AND WOLFF. 105

well did this gallant soldier acquit himself in the church militant^ both in deeds of arms and deep devotion to the cause of Christ.'* What Arthur Conolly on his part thought of his friend may be gathered from a letter written by him shortly after his departure from Cawnpore. ' Wolff

* A friend who was then at Cawnpore, writing to me of this period of Conoll/s histoiy, says : ' . . . An acquaintance, which ripened into mutual regard and esteem, b^[an in an odd way, and was improved by an odd man. I was very much charmed with his singing, and he was taken with my playing, on which he made the discovery that he had never been taught, and I had never learnt notes ; and while I was indebted to an enthusiastic bellows-blower in Chich- ester Cathedral, who, for sixpence a week, allowed me to operate on the old organ therein, and used to predict no end of future fame, he, too, had been encouraged by some old nurse to believe that he was a cherub, and would beat Braham yet. The odd man was Joseph Wolff. .... When Wolff paid Conolly a visit at Cawnpore, I was a good deal with them, and joined in their laughter. Yes, there was a good deal of laughing. Wolff was both untidy and uncleanly, and yet not unwilling to be reformed, and so, at or before breakfast, ran the lesson. From Arthur Conolly to him : " Peer Moorshid, have we put on the clean stockings ? " Then next, " Have we used the sponge and chillumchee ? " (basin.) To all of which Wolff would make good-himioured reply, adding, * * Truly ye are all sons of Eezak I " Yet there was real love in that laughing. Wolffs love and admiration of Arthur Conolly were unboimded. He could, too, break out into lofty discourse, and Arthur Conolly held his own with him. I never can forget one Sabbath conversation on the Jews, protracted till it was time for us all to go to church together, when Wolff preached on the subject — ^The Jews, think how great were their privileges ; Chris- tian Englishmen, think how great are your privileges. When Wolff, in after years, went to Bokhara, and spoke of Arthur Conolly as his "moreed" — as I confidently recollect he did, though I cannot lay hold of the narrative — ^I feel assured his mind often went back to those days at Cawnpore.

io6 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY. \A^

has left us,' wrote the young Christian enthusiast on the 19th of February, 1833, ' and has taken with him the esteem and best wishes of all who knew him. As you will shortly see him in Calcutta, I need not enter into much detail of his sayings and doings here, but let me again assure you that he is neither crazy, vain, nor fantastical, bnt a simple- minded, humble, rational, and sound Christian. His chief desire is to preach to all people, Jesus Christ crucyied, the Grod, and only Saviour of mankind : he is naturally most anxious that his own brethren should turn to the light that has shone upon him, and therefore he seeks them in all parts of the earth where God's wrath has scattered them, but ever as he goes, he proclaims to the Mahomedan, and to the idolater, the great object of his mission. On his opinions concerning the personal reign of our Saviour on earth during the Millenniiun, I am not qualified to pass judgment, but I believe he has chiefly formed them upon a literal interpretation of the yet to be fulfilled prophecies, especially those contained in the 72nd Psalm and the 60th

Isaiah And after all, though he is most decided in

his creed, he says : " I am no inspired prophet, and I may err in my calculations and conclusions, but the book from which I deduce them cannot be wrong — search into its meanings, as you are commanded, with prayer and humble diligence, and then decide according to the understanding that God has given you 5 I ask not that you should accept my words, but that you should inquire diligently into those which contain the assurance of a blessing to those who read and keep them," Rev. i. 3. If this be madness, I wish he would bite me. In his English discourses, Wolff labours

1833] CORRESPONDENCE WITH BUR NES, 107

under ignorance of idioms and select expressions^ and finds difficulty in well embodying and connecting the thoughts that crowd upon him, yet it is always a pleasure to hear him, for often when struggling with the words of a big sentence, he throws out a few thrillingly beautiful expres* sions that give light to the rest, and at times it is quite wonderftil how he rises with the grandeur of his theme, and finds an uninterrupted flow of fine language. He was very clear and forcible in his exposition of the jist Psalm, and the pth of Acts, and the Sunday morning before he left us, he preached a homily upon Paul's address to King Agrippa, which we all felt to be sublimely beautiftil throughout. .... Judging by the benefit we have reaped firom his conversation here, we may hope that he will be made the means of doing much good wherever he goes.. You will be delighted with his company in private society, for he is full of varied and most interesting anecdote j but, above all, I hope you will hear him when he appears to the greatest advantage in the pulpit, for understanding the Hebrew meanings of words in Scripture, he throws new light upon passages that are familiar to us, but chiefly he preaches truth yrom the heart, and therefore, generally, to the heart.' At Cawnpore, Arthur Conolly corresponded with Alex- ander Bumes, who had accomplished his great journey, and was then reaping his reward. Conolly had been the first to acquire and to place on record the much-needed information relating to the country between India and Per- sia^ but he had been slow to. make his appearance before the English public, and the Bombay officer had been rising into eminence, whilst his comrade of Bengal was still al-

io8 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY, [1833.

most unknown. Conolly rejoiced in the success of his brother-traveller, and, without the slightest tinge of jealousy upon his feelings, wrote to congratulate Bumes on his achievements. ' Although,' he wrote on the 20th of April, 1833, 'I may be one of the last to congratulate you upon the happy accomplishment of your journey, I beg you not to rank me amongst the least sincere, for I really compliment you upon the resolution which has carried you through the most difficult as well as the most interesting part of Central Asia, and trust that you will derive as much honour and benefit from your travels, as we doubtless shall instruction and amusement. I meant to write to you at Bombay^ but hearing that you were coming round to Calcutta, I de- termined there to address my congratulations, and some remarks upon certain matters in which you are interested. First, I owe you an explanation of a circumstance which, if I did not describe it, might possibly induce you to enter- tain what was, I believe, the Governor-Greneral's opinion — that I wished feloniously to appropriate your valuable survey of the Indus. When in Calcutta, I drew up for his Lord- ship a map of the countries lying between the Arras and Indus, the Aral and Indian Ocean, which, being compiled at the Surveyor-General's office from the best authorities, contained the Indus as laid down by you. In this I sketched my route from Meshed to Buhawalpore, correcting the error that appeared in my protraction by the Bukkur of your map. When I had written out my journal for the press, I wrote to head-quarters to know whether I might send a copy of the above-mentioned map to England to be pub- lished with my book, and I especially begged to know

x833.] CORRESPONDENCE WITH BURNES, 109

whether there existed objections to my using that portion of it which had been copied from your survey. I addressed myself to my relation^ Mr Macnaghten, the secretary, and our mutual friend Trevelyan answered for him, in a note which I am sure he will not object to my enclosing. In consequence of its contents, I sent home to the Greographi- cal Society, in London, as much of the map as embraced my route, copying into it from your survey a hit of the river about Bukkur, so as to place that point correctly, and mentioning that I had so done ; there anticipating that a full and correct copy would be furnished me for my book. I wrote a preface to the last, in which I offered you my poor thanks for the benefit I thought to borrow from your labours. Objections were made at the Surveyor-General's office to completing the map without specific instructions from head-quarters. I wrote for these, and the Grovemor- Greneral bdng up the country, I was occupied in alternate correspondence with his Lordship's and the Vice-Resident's secretaries for about two months, at the end of which time it was notified to me that I might use every part of the map in question except that part which had been laid down by you. I had then only to regret that I had lost so much time in consequence of his Lordship's opinion not having been correctly ascertained in the first instance, and to can- cel that part of my preface which made mention of you. In this particular instance I could not see much danger of acting wrong, as I was informed that Government would very shortly publish a map containing all the latest inform- ation 5 but I would in no case have borrowed information from you, had I thought that you would object to my

110 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY. [1833.

doing so with due acknowledgment of my obligations. I do not now apprehend that you will hold me guilty of any evil intention^ but it is proper that I should explain the cir- cumstance^ and beg your excuse for any -error with which

you may deem me chargeable I have before me

your long and kind letter^ dated on the Ravee, January 26, 1832, since when you have made a grand tour. You were right in supposing that I would willingly have under- taken such a trip with you, but, as you so well foresaw, there were several objections to my doing so. The notes, for which you so politely thanked me, were, I fear, too slight to have served you much, but they were heartily at your service, as are all those which I have collected for publication. Permit me to offer you these, with the sketch of my route, and the slightly altered country through which it runs. The map which contains it, you will get at the Surveyor-General's office, and my relation, Mr Macnaghten, now Political Secretary, will procure for you a copy of the roughly-printed pages which I sent home for Mr Murray to publish. From them you may glean a few particulars which will enable you to prove, or to complete, some of your notes, and I beg that you will make the freest use of all. 'Tis late to thank you for the good wishes and kind encouragement contained in your precedingly-mentioned letter, but you have not been travelling upon post roads» and must, therefore, accept my present acknowledgments. Several untoward circumstances have conspired to keep me without the pale of the Sirkar's patronage, and my wisest plan, I believe, would be to fold up my carpet of hope, and betake myself to a quiet whiff* at the pipe of resignation.

x834— 35-1 POLITICAL EMPLOYMENT. in

but I am at heart too much of a vagabond to do this^ and trust yet to pitch a tent among some of our long-bearded friends of the mountains.*

But these anticipations of continued neglect were goon falsified. In 1834^ Lieutenant ConoUy went with his regiment to Mhow, and soon afterwards he was transferred to that great outlet for the energies of aspiring young soldiers^ kept down by the seniority sjrstem — ^the Political Department. He was appointed an assistant to the Go- vernor-General's agent in Rajpootana. He was consoled at the same time by receipt of intelligence from England assuring him that his book had been published^ and had been well received by the critics and by the public. Burnes sent him some cuttings from the literary journals to show how well his fellow-traveller had been reviewed — an atten- tion which Conolly gratefidly acknowledged in a letter, which is interesting on many other accounts. Writing from the Sambhur Lake, May 30, 1835, he said: 'Pray accept my sincere thanks for your welcome letter of the nth instant, containing Monsieur D*Avega*s secret and confidential notice of the honours designed for us by the Greographical Society of Paris. I must endeavour, in my letter of thanks to this liberal and enlightened body, to atone for not having at first presented a copy of my book to theip. It was very kind of you to do this for me, accord- ing to the hint by which I could not otherwise have pro- fited, and I have to thank you for this friendly act as one of a series for which I am your debtor. I did not answei your London letters, because you talked of returning to the East immediately J but you may be sure that I was much

112 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY, [1835.

gratified by the periodical notices of my work, which you were so good as to send me. They came like rays of siun shine after a cloud ! There could be little doubt of your success \ but as it has been hardly equalled, I may ofier you my congratulations upon it. I think you did right in declining the Secretaryship to lus Majesty's Embassy in Ir4n, because Mr £lphinstone advised you, and I hope that he saw a better field for you in Caubul or Bokhara. The attention of the home authorities has, after a long dream, been awakened to the state of their politics in Persia, and the appointment of Lord Heytesbury to the Grovemor- Generalship induces me to believe that British interests will no longer be neglected in Central Asia. Your fortune, of course, is not dependent upon the retention or abolition of what is termed the non-interference system with regard to our foreign affairs 5 you may speedily rise here to a higher station than the one above-mentioned, but, for my own part, I would rather be secretary of Embassy in Persia than the greatest magnate in any part of this consunUng clime. It does, indeed, try both body and mind. I speak feelingly on this subject just now, for I am living in a tent on the border of the famed Salt Lake of Sambhur, ceded to us after the Joudpore war, in order that Lord William might be styled " the fountain of grace and bounty." As assistant to the Governor-General's agent in Rajpootana, I am residing here in the joint capacities of Hakim and Bunneeah, and as everything is yet in confusion and ruin, 1 am as hardly worked and as badly fed as Sancho was in Barrataria. The last advices from Loodianah state that Runjeet was about to close with the Afghans. I fear that

1835-38] RETURN TO ENGLAND, 113

he will get the better of them somehow or other. Shah Soojah is in the Sikh camp. I hear the Maharajah has promised to make him King of Peshawur. Thus far may the troops of the Royal Cyclops advance their standards, but they will not be able to hold ground farther west : so thinks my esteemed friend S}iid Keramut Ali, who has lately returned from Caubul, and who gives me very in- teresting accounts of the state in which he left the Caubul Sirdars. The Syud advised Jubbar Khan to send his eldest son to India for an English education. Captain Wade dis- covered a political mystery lying deep under this specious pretext, and after some quarrels which occurred in con- sequence, my friend, as the weakest party, went to the wall. I hope, however, to be able to show that all the differences had rise in mistakes. He at present stands condemned upon an ipse dixit, according to the equitable S3r5tem by which whites judge blacks. I have requested my Calcutta agent to send you a copy of my book — a com- pliment which I could not sooner pay, and which I hope you will accept as a mark of my high esteem.*

In the performance of his political and other duties, Arthur Conolly worked on, until, in the month of January, 1838, he obtained a ftirlough to England. He did not go home because he was sick, or because he was weary of Indian life, but because he was drawn thither by the attrac- tions of one to whom he had given the best affections of his heart. He had ever, in words which I find in one of his own letters, with reference to the character of a friend, a great besoin (T aimer — and he had found one worthy to fill the void. He had met in India a young lady, the

VOL. II. 8

114 CAPTAIN ARTHUR CONOLLY, [1838.

daughter of a man in high position there, a member of a noble family 5 and he had given to her all the love of his warm, passionate nature. But she had returned to England with her parents 5 and so he followed thither, believing, as he had good reason to believe, that their reunion would soon be followed by their marriage.

They met again, under her father's roof 5 and for a while he was supremely happy. But the fond hopes which he had cherished were doomed to bitter disappointment. The blight which fell upon the life of Henry Martyn fell also upon the life of Arthur Conolly. The whole history of it lies before me as written by himself, but it is not a history to be publicly related. There was no fault on either side. Nothing more is to be said of it than that it was God's will. And no man ever bowed himself more resignedly or reverentially to such a dispensation. He had been resolved for her sake to sacrifice his career 5 never to re- turn to India, but to go into a house of business — ^to accept any honourable employment, so that he might not take her from her family and her home. But when this hope was unexpectedly prostrated, he turned again to the career which lay before him, and went back into the solitude of public life. He went back, chastened and subdued, fidl of the deepest love for the one, and of boundless