The chiefs of this part of the country have not altered much in this respect; they are still as great sportsmen as ever, and their sons are initiated into the 'Sport of Kings at a very early age. He was still young, as his remarks on his enjoyment of the gay doings in the capital evidence : 'Such lots of women, and laughing and philandering, that I was in Heaven.'

Soon after his return to Nagpur, Elphinstone received orders to join the court of Scindia. The Maharaja was at the time moving about the country with an enormous camp, somewhat after the manner of the Mogul Emperors, whose camps were almost like towns on the march. He was only about two months with Scindia, when he was ordered to Delhi to take charge of an embassy that was to proceed to the court of the Amir of Afghanistan.

At Delhi he met Metcalfe, who was starting on a similar mission to the court of Ranjit Singh at Lahore. The danger that seemed to threaten the British position in India at this period was an invasion of India by Napoleon Buonaparte, who was now at the height of his power, and was known to have designs on India: he is said even to have chosen his route. It was to guard against this danger that Lord Minto resolved to establish friendly relations with the several Powers holding the keys of the North-Western Frontiers, as they then were. Besides the missions of Metcalfe and Elphinstone, another under Malcolm was dispatched to Persia: as well as missions on a smaller scale to Sindh and Biluchistan. Elphinstone's mission was on a magnificent scale he had a staff of thirteen selected British officers. He found the Amir, Shah Shuja, at Peshawar, and soon discovered that his position was by no means so secure as had been thought : and, indeed, within a few weeks of his signing a Treaty between himself and the British, he had been driven from his throne, and had become an exile in the Punjab. He still, however, kept up the show of royal magnificence, and much of the ceremonial traditional with the court of the Amirs of Afghanistan. Elphinstone gives an amusing picture of the ancient ceremonial: The ambassador to be introduced is brought into court by two officers, who hold him firmly by the arms on coming in sight of

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the king, who appears at a high window, the ambassador is made to run forward for a certain distance, when he stops for a moment and prays for the king. He is then made to run forward again, and prays once more, and after another run the king calls out Khillat a dress, which is followed by the Turkish word, "Getshin," begone, from an Officer of State, and the unfortunate ambassador is made to run out of the court, and sees no more of the king, unless summoned to a private audience.' Needless to say, Elphinstone did not conform to this ancient etiquette; he was received with courtesy and dignity. He has recorded his impressions of the Shah: 'It will scarcely be believed of an Eastern monarch how much he had the manners of a gentleman, or how well he preserved his dignity, while he seemed only anxious to please.' Elphinstone did not see more than the borders of Afghanistan, but he acquired a good deal of information through his usual practice of mixing and conversing with all classes of people he was especially charmed with the conversation of two Afghan gentlemen he met, one of whom astonished him with his knowledge of European history and politics, and the other by his taste for mathematics and his acquisition of Sanskrit, which he was learning solely in order to discover the treasures of Hindu learning. He was also pleased with the civility he and his party received from the country people, who constantly pressed them to partake of hospitality, and would take no refusal. In the light of the various expeditions that have been forced on the British Government by the raids of the border tribes round and about Peshawar on to British territory in these later days, it is interesting to record the remark of an Afghan chief to Elphinstone on the characteristics of the people generally: We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood; but we will never be content with a master.' The British Government has ever shown great patience in dealing with these border tribes, but cannot be content with discord, or alarms, or bloodshed in its own territories, and expeditions against them have from time to time been inevitable. A proverb current among these people, which was recently quoted by The Times, proves that they are

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the first to acknowledge the justice of this: The patience of the British Government is as long as a summer day, but its arm is as long as a winter night.' The mission was eventually broken up at Delhi, and Elphinstone was ordered to Calcutta, where he presented his report.

Elphinstone was next appointed Resident at the court of Puna, an appointment which he took up without much enthusiasm; and he looked forward to retirement at the end of it. He had already shown that he was a diplomatist, he was now to show that he could be an administrator as well, and one of the first rank. On his voyage from Calcutta to Bombay by sea, he had Henry Martyn, the great missionary, as one of his fellow travellers. He thus describes him : He is an excellent scholar, and one of the mildest, cheerfullest, and pleasantest men I ever saw, who, though extremely religious, talks on all subjects, sacred and profane, and laughs and makes others laugh as heartily as he could do if he were an infidel.'

One of his first acts in his new appointment was to intervene on behalf of the class of Jaghirdars, the hereditary nobles of the Southern Mahratta country, who had received their grants of rent-free lands from the Mogul Emperors: the claim of the Peshwa to their military service was acknowledged, but they were guaranteed against further exactions by a pledge of security from the British Government. The Chief of Kolhapur was at the same time recognized as an independent sovereign in return for his surrender of a fort and harbour in the Konkan, which had long been a nest of pirates. On one of his marches he came across an extraordinary scene: 'A manservant of a Mahratta gentleman, in performance of a vow for a child, was rolling along the road from Puna to Pandarpur : he had been a month at it, and had become so expert that he went on smoothly and without pausing, and kept rolling evenly along the middle of the road over stones and everything; he travelled at the rate of eight miles a day.' Those who have lived much in the country districts of India are not unacquainted with similar instances of religious zeal pilgrims walking backwards from one shrine to another, others measuring their length at every step along the road, may thus not uncommonly be met

with. He published his History of Kabul during this period of his career, a work which cost him immense labour, and which still remains the standard authority on Afghanistan. He led a very simple life, and his diet was spare almost to austerity: while his lunch consisted of a few sandwiches and figs, and a glass of water, he often dined off a few potatoes, and a glass or two of claret; he never neglected either his long ride in the morning and his gymnastic exercises twice a day, or his private reading in the afternoons; public business occupied his mornings. With the appointment of Lord Moira, afterwards the Marquis of Hastings, to the head of affairs, a more vigorous policy in connexion with the Native States was inaugurated. The Governor-General determined to crush the great predatory hordes of Pindaris that were the primary cause of the suffering and anarchy prevailing over a very large portion of the Deccan. They were largely encouraged and supported by the Mahratta Princes; and there were not wanting signs that these princes themselves were becoming restless, and anxious to try conclusions again with the British. Elphinstone had organized an intelligence department of his own, and knew all that was going on, even to the colour of the javelin carried by the news-writers whom he found were being utilized to convey correspondence between the several Mahratta courts from the head quarters at Puna. Each court had its distinctive colour painted on the javelins carried by its messengers: it was a sort of livery and was recognized as such by the officials of the several princes; similar javelins were used by the bankers of the different cities in the Native States, but they were for the most part painted in one colour. The system of news-writers is a very ancient one in the East, and to this day there is not a family of any eminence in India that has not its own service. Elphinstone describes the precautions that he found it necessary to observe in connexion with all official correspondence at this critical time: All correspondence had to be written on the smallest slips of paper rolled up and conveyed in quills, like Birhis.' The usual form in which tobacco is smoked in Central India is a kind of tobacco-leafed cigarette, called a Birhi.

The crisis arrived at last in connexion with a man named Trimbakji Danglia, one of the favourites of Baji Rao: he had been a menial servant whom Baji Rao had raised to the rank of a minister. This man had barbarously murdered an envoy from the Baroda State who was travelling under a safe-conduct from the British Government. Elphinstone demanded his surrender, and the Peshwa had only acceded to the demand after Elphinstone had moved up a strong body of troops. Trimbakji was imprisoned in a fort, and a European guard placed in charge. He managed to escape, and a romantic story is attached to the manner of his escape. A Mahratta groom took service with an officer of the garrison, and while daily walking his master's horse up and down under the windows of the fort, used to recite a chant: the English sentry of course could not understand the tenor of it: the prisoner learnt from it that arrangements were in progress for his escape. When all was ready, a hole was dug through the wall, and Trimbakji escaped, and took refuge among the mountains of the Western Ghats. A Mahratta ballad, which is still sung by wandering bards who may be met with all over the Deccan, tells, with picturesque additions, the romantic story. Trimbakji was subsequently recaptured, but only after the close of the war, of which he was a primary cause, and was again imprisoned this time at the Chunar Fort on the Ganges. Some years afterwards he was visited by Bishop Heber, who has thus versified the chant of the Mahratta groom :Behind the bush the bowmen hide, The horse beneath the tree :

Where shall I find a Knight will ride
The jungle paths with me?

There are five and fifty coursers there,

And four and fifty men:

When the fifty-fifth shall mount his steed,

The Deccan thrives again.

With Trimbakji's escape, in the autumn of 1816, the crisis again became acute. Elphinstone was informed that the Peshwa was collecting forces at a Temple of Mahadeo, the National Deity of the Mahrattas, somewhere in the