march through Scinde, and his will had prevailed. In 1842 British armies were evacuating Afghanistan, and the solitary reason which had suggested the occupation of Scinde no longer existed. Ellenborough, however, could not bring himself to recede from a position which, fourteen years before, he had longed to occupy. His dream had been fulfilled, the British flag waved in triumph on the Indus, and the river, so it seemed to the Governor-General, might be substituted for the Ganges "as the line of military communication between England and the North-West." The valley of the Indus was, of course, the point which Ellenborough chiefly coveted. The free navigation of the Indus could plainly be held by the permanent occupation of certain places on its banks. The road to the Bolan Pass, through which Keane had marched, crosses the Indus at a spot where the island of Bukkur divides the stream into two portions; and throughout the campaign British troops had occupied this island and the adjacent banks. It would not have been safe, however, for a British garrison to have been. permanently encamped in the centre of a hostile country without easy means of obtaining reinforcements; and the British had consequently also seized Kurrachee, a port on the extreme west of Hindostan, and communicating with all the roads which run through Scinde. It was clear that the permanent occupation of these places would give the command both of river and territory to the Power which held them. Nor was it difficult to find reasons for converting a temporary force into a permanent garrison. In the treaties which the Ameers had been forced reluctantly to accept at Auckland's bidding the Ameers had bound themselves to pay a definite sum towards the support of the British troops, and this payment had fallen into arrear; they had undertaken to enter into no negotiation with foreign chief or State without British sanction, and there were grave suspicions that they were intriguing with Lahore and other Powers; they had promised that no toll should be charged on boats trading on the Indus, and they had continued to charge their own Pretexts for inter vention. subjects with toll.1 It was true, indeed, that the clauses of the treaty relating to tolls were of difficult construction, that the evidence of treachery rested on documents of doubtful authenticity, and that one of Auckland's last acts in India was to express to the Ameers his satisfaction at their friendly disposition and liberal policy. A Governor-General had arisen who knew not Auckland, and who did not consider himself bound by Auckland's declarations. During 1858-9 Henry Pottinger, uncle to the defender of Herat, had filled the place of political agent in Scinde. Other work had been found for him in China, and he had been succeeded at Hyderabad by Outram, a comparatively young officer, whose signal services in organising a Bheel corps and in pacifying a wild and warlike tribe had won him the respect of his contemporaries without always securing for him the approval of his employers.3 Soon after Ellenborough's arrival in India, Outram reported certain intrigues on the part of the more restless Ameers, and Ellenborough sent to him three letters to the chiefs, which he was authorised either to use or to suppress, expressing his confidence in their fidelity, but declaring that, on the day on which they should prove faithless, their sovereignty would pass from them, their dominion would be given to others, and that all India should see that the British Government would not pardon an injury from those whom it believed to be its friends. These words, Outram was told distinctly, were no idle threat, but conveyed a resolution to punish, cost what it might, the first chief who proved faithless by the confiscation of his dominions. The threat, however, never reached the Ameers. Outram believed that all of them had been more or less concerned, directly or indirectly, in treasonable plottings; he thought that these intrigues, commenced after the news of Ellenborough's threats to the Ameers. 1 For the treaty, Papers relating to Scinde, pp. 174, 175. 2 Correspondence relating to Scinde, p. 309. 3 For the Bheels, ante, p. 139, note; and for Outram's conduct in reclaiming them, and for the official censures on his later conduct for over-zeal, Life of Outram, vol. i. pp. 51-94 and 125-145. 4 Correspondence relating to Scinde, p. 315. British reverses in Afghanistan, had been suspended on the intelligence of the successes of Pollock and Sale; he believed that the Ameers were anxious to regain British friendship; and he feared that the delivery of Ellenborough's threat would force them into overt acts of hostility. Availing Suppressed himself, therefore, of the discretion which the by Outram. Governor-General had given him, he abstained from delivering to the Ameers the letters which had been entrusted to him, and his decision to refrain from so doing was formally approved by Ellenborough.1 Treaties are equally binding on all the parties who agree to them. The British were technically as much bound as the Ameers by the pledges which they had given. But, when a strong Power negotiates with a weak one, the strong Power frequently places its own construction on the bargain. Auckland had openly torn up the stipulations of previous treaties, and there was no power to reckon with the formidable Company which he represented. The Ameers had endeavoured to evade their promises, and evasion was to be punished with pitiless severity. The Ameers had not paid the tribute which had been demanded of them, and territory, whether they liked it or not, was to be taken from them instead of it. The Governor-General required Sukkur and Kurrachee, and these places were to be seized for the tribute. But spoliation was not to be limited to these positions. The Khan of Bhawulpore had displayed an unwavering friendship to the Company Ellenthroughout the operations in Afghanistan. It was demand on desirable that he should be rewarded for his services, the Ameers. and the reward could be most cheaply obtained by taking it from the Ameers. All that Ellenborough desired for himself, all that he desired for his allies, was to be obtained from the unfortunate princes whom his predecessor's conduct had driven into hostility.2 borough's Outram was startled at learning Ellenborough's intentions. 1 Correspondence relating to Scinde, pp. 319, 338. I have, as far as possible, in this and in all cases, reproduced the exact words of the official documents. Cf. Outram's Conquest of Scinde, a Commentary, vol. i. pp. 47, 48. 2 Correspondence relating to Scinde, pp. 317, 318, 338. He knew that the Ameers would resist the cession of territory; he thought that, if Ellenborough were set on spoliation, he had better at once declare it to be a punishment for intrigue. He submitted a draft treaty to the Governor-General, declaring in its preamble that new arrangements had become necessary in consequence of the treasonable correspondence into which certain of the Ameers had entered,1 and he suggested that an article should be added to it pledging the British Government to remit all arrears of tribute and to make no further claims on the Government of Scinde. But the proposal found little favour with Ellenborough. He doubted the expediency of resting his case on a correspondence whose authenticity was Outram super seded by suspected, and, perhaps with a keen recollection of the past, he declined to make any promises for Napier. the future.2 He concluded, too, that the policy on which he was bent required a tougher agent than the highminded officer who had hitherto represented him at Hyderabad; and he decided on sending Sir Charles Napier, perhaps the most distinguished member of a distinguished family, with full military and political power, to Scinde. Napier was the eldest son of Colonel George Napier, by Sarah, the widow of Colonel Bunbury, and the daughter of the Duke of Richmond. Those who now admire Lady Sarah Bunbury's portrait associate the charms which Reynolds has preserved with the romantic attachment which they inspired in George III. Lady Sarah, however, was reserved for other fortunes than the throne to which the king's admiration seemed at one time likely to elevate her. She was destined to become the mother of a family of heroes who proved themselves the bravest among the brave in every battlefield in the Peninsula. Napier was told to retain Kurrachee, to concentrate his force at Sukkur, and thus maintain a firm grasp on Upper and Lower Scinde. It was convenient, so Ellenborough thought, that he should know that any evidence of hostility on the part of any Ameer would meet with punishment which should be a warning to 1 Correspondence relating to Scinde, pp. 341, 343. 2 Ibid., p. 349; Conquest of Scinde, a Commentary, vol. i. p. 42. every chief in India, and that the Governor-General was determined to seize the first opportunity for conferring substantial rewards on the Khan of Bhawulpore.1 Bad luck in the first instance attended Napier's mission. The vessel in which he sailed from Bombay was attacked with cholera. Of the troops which she carried, one in four died at sea. Three days after Napier landed, a rocket during practice exploded, and tore the calf of his right leg open to the bone. Such incidents might have dulled the ardour of many brave men. But disease and wounds had no effect on the bold member of a family of heroes. Three times wounded at Corunna, wounded at Busaco, shipwrecked on his return from Waterloo, wounds and dangers had been the lot of his hard life, and the new injury did not confine him for a week to his tent. Five days after his wound he was travelling up the country, and on the 19th of September he was received by the Ameers at Hyderabad.2 the Ameers. The language which Napier used reflected the determination of the Governor-General. The Ameers were told that the British would not suffer any infraction of the treaty, Napier's de and that they must at once direct their officers to manis on abstain from levying tolls on boats on the Indus, and to refrain from interfering directly or indirectly with the supplies to the British cantonments at Kurrachee.3 One of them at once complied with Napier's demands. Nusseer Khan, the chief Ameer of Hyderabad, however, showed no inclination to do so; and Ellenborough, still adhering to his old intentions, told Napier, on the 23rd of October, "that if Nusseer still persisted in disregarding the conditions of the treaty he would forfeit all his property and rights in Kurrachee, Tatta, Shikarpore, Sukkur, the pergunnahs adjoining the Bhawulpore district, and Subzulkote." If Napier 1 Correspondence relating to Scinde, p. 352. 2 Conquest of Scinde, pp. 16–22. 3 The demand was put in writing on the 25th of September. Correspondence relating to Scinde, p. 358. I have confined my narrative to the matter of Napier's mission; for comments on the offensive manner of it, see Calcutta Review, vol, vi. p. 575, and the Conquest of Scinde, a Commentary, vol. i. p. 62. |