1 MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH. 443
2 sent a detachment of troops against the Syad, under Prince Sher Singh.
3 The former kept’ up a desultory warfare against the Sikhs, and success for
4 the most part attended him in the rugged mountains. In one of these | tssurprisedandslain,
5 conflicts he was, however, taken by surprise, together with his wazir, Muham- Be
6 mad Ismail, at a place called Baldkot,in May 1831, and both were slain
7 by the Sikhs, who soon brought under subjection the insurrectionary Khans
8 of the hills. The heads of the Syad and his wazir were sent by Prince
9 Sher Singh to the Mahardjé. Thus ended the career of Syad Ahmad, the , His memory is
10 impostor, who, in the garb of religion, had endeavoured to promote his
11 own private ends and those of his followers. His existence as the sup-
12 porter of the Wahdbi persuasion was as dangerous to the Mussalmdn com-
13 munity who followed the precepts of the Qurdn and the Hadis as propound-
14 ed by the early writers of the faith, as it was to the non-Mussalmdn public.
15 Immediately after his death became known, his deputies were expelled
16 from the hills on the frontier, his Ghézis fled in disguise, and his family
17 sought protection with its old master, the Nawab of Tonk. The neighbour- _ Peace restored and
18 hood of Peshawar was quiet after the Syad’s death, and Ranjit Singh "“"""
19 entered upon no military enterprise of importance after taking the field
20 against this pretender.
21 The power of Ranjit Singh was now consolidated, and his fame at its .,The power of Ranjit
22 height.. He had brought into subjection the Mahomedan provinces of on
23 Kashmir, Multén and Peshdwar. He was lord of the hills and plains in the
24 Panjab proper, and he entertained designs’on Laddkh and Sindh. Distant
25 sovereigns sought his friendship. In 1826 Darvesh Muhammad vakil of the , His friendship court-
26 Nizdm of Hyderdbéd, waited on the Darbar of Léhore with presents, sovereigns.
27 consisting of four horses, a sword, a cannon and several matchlocks,
28 for the Mahardjé -and Kanwar Kharak Singh. The same year, Sef
29 Khan, agent of Prince Kdémrdn, of Herat, arrived with presents. In
30 1829 -agents from Biluchistan came to Ldhore with presents of horses
31 for the Sikh ruler, who was asked to help in the restoration of the
32 posts of Dajal and Harrand on the frontier of Dera Ghazi Khan, west
33 of the Indus, which had been usurped by the Bdhdwalpur Nawab, a
34 feudatory of Ranjit Singh. The following year he was invited to witness
35 the nuptials of the young Maharajé Sindhid, of Gwalior; but he declined
36 the invitation, on the ground that Sindbid was not at Lahore when the
37 Mahardja’s_ son was married. The English valued his friendship and _ the English value
38 watched his proceedings with interest, being not without a suspicion that Ms *uénir.
39 he had opened a correspondence with Russia.
40 _ The shawl tent manufactured at Kashmir, which the Maharajé had
41 sent as a present for His Majesty King William was taken to England by
42 Lord Amherst, on his return to Europe in 1828, and became an object of _ Presents trom His
43 curiosity and admiration. In.return for this present, it was resolved to Msjesty King Willian
44 send Ranjit Singh, on the part of His Majesty, a present of five horses, .
45 accompanied by a letter of friendship from Lord Ellenborough, the Gover-
46 nor-General, as His Majesty’s representative in Hindostdn. The ship
47 conveying these horses arrived at Bombay in 1830, and Lieutenant Alex- The mission of Lieut.
48 ander Burnes, who then held a political situation in Katch, was, with the “Sm 16
49 sanction of the Governor-General, selected by Major-General Sir John
50 Malcolm, the Governor of Bombay, to proceed up the river Indus on a mis-
51 sion to the Sikh capital with these presents. The Indus was chosen as | ‘the Indus selected as
52 the -route of ‘this journey, as the authorities, both in England and India, etenteofhis
53 were anxious to collect full and complete information, political and geo-
54 graphical, regarding that river. The only accounts that existed of a great
55 ‘portion of its course were drawn from Arrion, -Curtius, and other historians of Pe uae
56 3
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