jealousies and heart-burnings which he knew to be still at work in the breasts A.D. 1823. of the Barukzye confederates, that Azim Khan, when he was pluming himself with the hope of victory, saw his force suddenly melt away. The disappointment was greater than he was able to bear, and shortly afterwards, in 1823, he died of a broken heart. state of Af Prince Ayoot was still the nominal sovereign of Cabool, but in the confu- Troubled sion occasioned by Azim Khan's death, he was easily set aside, and the contest ghanistan. for supremacy was once more renewed among the Barukzye chiefs. Habiboolah Khan, Azim Khan's eldest son, was at first acknowledged as his successor, but he had none of his father's talents, and soon made himself contemptible by a life of dissipation; and by tyranny and caprice alienated those who were best able and were most disposed to befriend him. Dost Mahomed, who had played a leading part in the treachery which proved fatal to Azim Khan, was the first to THE BALA HISSAR, CABOOL.- From Sale's Defence of Jelalabad. take advantage of the worthlessness of his son, and after succeeding in inducing his troops to abandon him in the open field, compelled him to shut himself up within the Bala Hissar or citadel of Cabool. Here his resistance must have been of short duration had Dost Mahomed been left to deal with him in his own way. This, however, the other Barukzye chiefs would not permit, and Dost Mahomed, at the very moment when he thought himself sure of the prize, not only saw it elude his grasp, but was obliged to save himself by flight. The Candahar and Peshawer chiefs, who had on this occasion made common cause, were now masters of Cabool, while Dost Mahomed was a fugitive in Kohistan. between After another season of anarchy a truce was agreed to, Shere Dil Khan and Hollow truce Dost Mahomed returning respectively to Candahar and Ghuznee, while Sultan Dost and Mahomed, resigning Peshawer to some other brothers who held it in common with him, became sovereign of Cabool. The truce had been hollow at first, and Sultan Mahomed. VOL. III. 233 the truco. was ere long succeeded by another rupture. Shere Dil Khan died at Candahar, and the temporary arrangement which he had been mainly instrumental in Rupture of effecting was immediately broken up. Dost Mahomed renewed his claims on Cabool, and Sultan Mahomed, afraid to encounter him, consented to resume his former position at Peshawer. This event, which took place in 1826, though it did not formally settle the question of supremacy between the Barukzye brothers, virtually gave it to Dost Mahomed. By leaving him in possession of the capital it procured for him a general recognition as sovereign of Afghanistan. For several years his title remained undisputed, and it rather appears that he proved himself by his conduct not unworthy of it. While endeavouring to establish order in the government he was not forgetful of his own personal deficiencies, and by diligence and perseverance both remedied his neglected education, and rid himself of not a few of the vicious habits which he had contracted in earlier life. As far as was practicable among a rude and turbulent population, justice was fairly administered, the weak were protected against the strong, and real grievances were carefully redressed. In following out this procedure it was often necessary to use the strong arm, and no small discontent was produced among those who, having been accustomed to practise oppression, thought themselves defrauded of their privileges when they were compelled to desist from it. The old Dooranee chiefs in particular, who, under the Sudozye dynasty, had in a great measure monopolized all the powers of government, were indignant at being curbed by an upstart ruler, and gave such decided evidence of their readiness to conspire against him, that they were not only regarded with disfavour, but not unfrequently treated with a severity which was neither necessary nor politic. The design obviously was to crush their spirit and curtail their power, so as to render them less capable of mischief. In this Dost Mahomed was not very successful, and hence he had always in the very heart of his dominions a powerful party ready to break out in rebellion the moment a hopeful leader should appear. Treaty between Shah Runjeet Sing. This state of feeling in Afghanistan was well known to Shah Shujah, and Shujah and led him to cherish a hope that, notwithstanding his repeated failures, he would yet be able to recover the throne of Cabool. The treatment which he had received from Runjeet Sing must have left little inclination again to court an alliance with him, but his circumstances did not allow him to be fastidious, and he therefore opened a negotiation with the ruler of Lahore. His proposals were readily entertained, but when the terms came to be more fully discussed, the sacrifices demanded in return for promised assistance were so exorbitant that Shah Shujah, helpless as he was, positively rejected some of them, and hesitated long before consenting to the remainder. At last, in March, 1833, a treaty was concluded by which the Maharajah (Runjeet Sing), in return for a vague promise to "furnish the Shah, when required, with an auxiliary force composed of Mahometans, and commanded by one of his principal officers as tween Shah Runjeet Sing. far as Cabool," was confirmed in the possession of Cashmere, Peshawer, and A.D. 1834. all the other territories lying on either bank of the Indus, which he had succeeded in wresting from the Afghans. After entering into this treaty Runjeet Treaty beSing showed no inclination to perform his obligation under it. Shah Shujah Shujah and waited in vain for the auxiliary force, and being at last thrown entirely on his own resources, endeavoured to raise two or three lacs of rupees by pledging his jewels. Even this was attended with much difficulty, and he endeavoured to secure the co-operation of the British government. Here, however, from what he had previously learned, he had little to hope, and therefore, however much he may have been mortified, he could not have been greatly surprised when, in answer to his application, Lord William Bentinck, then governor-general, replied as follows: "My friend, I deem it my duty to apprise you distinctly that the British government religiously abstains from intermeddling with the affairs of its neighbours when this can be avoided. Your majesty is of course master of your own actions; but to afford you assistance for the purpose which you have in contemplation, would not consist with that neutrality which on such occasions is the rule of guidance adopted by the British government." makes him. self master of Peshawer. In the face of all these discouragements Shah Shujah determined to persevere. The latter With a small body of troops, and a treasure chest, which would have been almost empty had it not been partially replenished with a sum which Lord William Bentinck, rather inconsistently with the above profession of neutrality, allowed him to draw as a four months' advance of his Loodiana pension, he proceeded southward in the direction of Shikarpoor, in order to profit by the assistance which the Ameers of Scinde had promised him. His subsequent adventures, how he quarrelled with the Ameers and defeated them, and how, after making his way to Candahar, he was himself defeated in 1834, and obliged to return as a fugitive to his asylum at Loodiana, having already been referred to among the memorable events which took place in India during Lord William Bentinck's administration, need not be again detailed. While Shah Shujah was making his attempt in Afghanistan, Runjeet Sing had despatched a body of 9000 men in the direction of Peshawer. As his treaty with Shah Shujah had been kept secret it was easy for him to disguise his real object, and Sultan Mahomed, the Barukzye chief, who had consented to hold Peshawer as a tributary of the Sikhs, on being assured that nothing more was intended than to levy the promised tribute, was thrown so completely off his guard, that the true character of his pretended friends was not made manifest to him till the city was in their hands, and he had no alternative but to save himself by an ignominious flight. Dost Mahomed, equally exasperated by the mismanagement of his brother and the treachery of Runjeet Sing, had no sooner returned from the defeat of Shah Shujah than he prepared to attempt the reconquest of Peshawer. His hopes of success rested mainly on the fanatical spirit of his countrymen, who, A.D. 1837. Dost Mahomed's recover Peshawer. as Mahometans, held the Sikhs and the religion which they professed in utter detestation. To give effect to this feeling, a religious war was proclaimed, and thousands and tens of thousands, many of them from distant mountain tribes, attempt to flocked to the standard which Dost Mahomed had raised, under the assumed title of Commander of the Faithful. This host, estimated merely by its numbers, was overpowering, but besides its want of discipline, which would have made it incapable of resisting such regular troops as the Sikhs had now become under the training of French officers, it was headed by leaders who had no common interest, and were openly or secretly at enmity with each other. It was indeed the very kind of army which no man knew better than Runjeet Sing how to defeat without the necessity of fighting with it. Pretending a desire to negotiate, he despatched an envoy to the Afghan camp. The nature of the instructions he had received may be gathered from the account which he afterwards gave of his proceedings: "I was despatched by the prince as ambassador to the Ameer. I divided his brothers against him, exciting their jealousy of his growing power, and exasperating the family feuds with which, from my previous acquaintance, I was familiar, and stirred up the feudal lords of his durbar with Causes of its the prospects of pecuniary advantages. I induced his brother Sultan Mahomed Khan, the lately deposed chief of Peshawer, with 10,000 retainers, to withdraw suddenly from his camp about nightfall. The chief accompanied me towards the Sikh camp, whilst his followers fled to their mountain fastnesses. So large a body retiring from the Ameer's control, in opposition to his will, and without previous intimation, threw the general camp into inextricable confusion, which terminated in the clandestine rout of his forces without beat of drum, or sound of bugle, or the trumpet's blast, in the quiet stillness of midnight." failure. camp com pletely deserted. The above account given by the envoy, an English adventurer of dubious antecedents, and evidently also of blunted moral perceptions, is probably too laboured and rhetorical to be strictly accurate, but there can be no doubt as to The Afghan the result. On the previous evening the Afghan camp contained 50,000 men and 10,000 horse; at daybreak not a vestige of it was seen. Dost Mahomed made good his retreat to Cabool, and felt so disgusted and ashamed, both at the disaster which had befallen him and the mode of effecting it, that he seemed willing for a time to abandon war and devote himself to peaceful pursuits. But the choice was not given him. Sultan Mahomed, now openly leagued with the Sikhs, was meditating an attack on Cabool. As the most effectual means of frustrating this design, Dost Mahomed in 1837 despatched a force under the command of his two sons, Afzul Khan and Akbar Khan, to penetrate through the Khyber Pass, and take up a position so as to command the entrance to it from the east. In the execution of these orders they advanced as far as Jumrood, which is only about twelve miles west of Peshawer, and immediately laid siege to it. A Sikh force under Huree Sing, Runjeet Sing's favourite general, advanced to its relief, and an encounter took place. The result was that the gained by homed's sons. Sikhs, after losing their general, who was killed on the spot, and sustaining A.D. 1837. severe loss, were obliged to retire and encamp under the walls of Jumrood. The young Afghan chiefs, proud of their achievement, were for pushing on to Victory Peshawer, but their impetuosity, which might have cost them dear, was checked Dost Maby the caution of a veteran officer who had accompanied them, and they returned to Cabool to celebrate their success, which fame had magnified into a victory. Dost Mahomed, though gratified above measure by the success of his sons, was not blinded as to the increasing difficulties of his position. The Sikhs were evidently bent on new encroachments; the Sudozye dynasty, still in possession of Surat, was only watching an opportunity to march again upon homed's du Cabool; Shah Shujah, too, after all his discomfitures, was still sanguine enough to hope for success; and treachery from within was continually threatening new revolutions. How were all these dangers to be met? The only plausible answer which Dost Mahomed could give was that he ought to endeavour to secure himself by a foreign alliance. Here there was not much room for choice. The only governments which seemed capable of giving him effectual support were the Persian on the west, and the British on the east. It was doubtful however if either the one or the other would be willing to afford it. The Shah Dost Maof Persia was actually threatening Herat, and so far might be regarded as bious policy making common cause with Dost Mahomed, by attacking one of his most formidable rivals; but it was well known that the Shah's ambition carried him far beyond Herat, and that he meditated the conquest of it merely as preliminary to that of the whole of Afghanistan. There was therefore more cause to fear than to court him. On the other hand, an application to the British government was far from hopeful. Shah Shujah was living as a pensioner within the British territory, and had lately received prepayment of his pension, and been permitted to depart at the head of a body of troops for the avowed purpose |