1 MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH. 485
2 into close proximity to the most exposed frontier of India. A large
3 Persian army was assembled for the siege of Herat, and the British Govern-
4 ment thought it necessary to take prompt steps for the safety of its north-
5 west frontier. Captain Alexander Burnes, who, after the mission to Ranjit
6 Singh, in 1831, had proceeded to Kabul and then travelled into Central
7 Asia as far as Bokhard, returning to Bombay by way .of Persia, was sent
8 as an envoy by Lord Auckland to the Court of Dost Muhammad Khan,
9 on a commercial mission. The object of the mission was to invite the aid
10 of the de facto rulers of Afghanistan in the measures necessary for giving
11 full effect to the treaties entered into by the British Government in
12 1832 with the Amirs of Sindh, the Nawab of Baéhdwalpur and Maharaja.
13 Ranjit Singh, which had for their object the opening of the navigation
14 of the Indus, to facilitate the extension of commerce, and to gain for the British
15 nation in Central Asia that legitimate influence which an interchange
16 of benefits would naturally produce. The original objects of Captain
17 Burnes’ mission to Kabul were of a purely commercial nature, though,
18 as the British representative in Afghanistan, he was interested in watch-
19 ing the course of events under the new aspect of affairs. He reached
20 Kabul in September 1837, and was hospitably received by the Amir, Dost
21 Muhammad Khan, But the Dost, who had overthrown the dynasty
22 of the Durradni Ahmad Shah, in avenging his brother's death, now aspired
23 to complete independence in the whole of Afghanistén. He was eager to
24 recover the valley of Peshdwar from the Sikhs; and the object of his letter
25 of 31st May 1886 to the Governor-General was to enlist the sympathy of
26 the British Government in his schemes of territorial aggrandizement. His
27 wants, he thought, were arms and ammunition, to drive the Sikhs out of
28 Peshdwar, and not bales of commodities from India. The treaty concluded
29 between Lord William Bentinck and Ranjit Singh at Ropar in 1831 forbade
30 the English from interfering with the ruler of Lahore in the country beyond
31 the Indus; and all notions of succouring the crazy and distracted Afghdn
32 monarchy had been abandoned. After these engagements with the Mahardjé,
33 the Government of India was most unwilling to render the Kabul chief, who
34 had recently assumed the title of Amir, and who was regarded as no more
35 than a usurper, any material aid in the prosecution of his designs. The
36 refusal of the British Government to give up the cause of their ally, the
37 Maharaja, was highly honourable ; and they stood firm in supporting the Maha-
38 rajé’s authority. Dost Muhammad, on his part, treated the envoy with the
39 greatest attention and seeming cordiality, assuring him of his hearty
40 co-operation in all measures tending to promote British trade in Kabul and
41 Afghanistén, yet he persisted in his demand for aid against his formidable
42 neighbours, the Sikhs. The British envoy’s errand left him no loophole for a
43 political treaty. Dost Muhammad sedulously filled the mind of ihe English
44 envoy with apprehensions of Russian intrigue and warnings of the danger which
45 threatened India from the Russian advance to the east. But the attacks
46 made by the Amir on the Sikh forces, besides being sudden and unprovoked,
47 were calculated to kindle the flames of war in the very regions into which
48 the British Government was endeavouring to extend its commerce, and it
49 was rightly thought that the beneficent purposes of that Government would
50 be altogether frustrated if these attacks by the Afghans were continued. In
51 order to avert so calamitous a result, the Governor-General authorised Captain
52 Burnes to intimate to Dost Muhammad Khan that, if he should evince a dis-
53 position to come to just and reasonable terms with the Maharaja, His Lord-
54 ship would exert his good offices with His Highness for the restoration
55 of an amicable understanding between the two powers, The Maharaja, with
56 The mission of Cap-
57 tain Alexander Burnes
58 to Kabul, 1837,
59 The objects of the
60 mission purely of a
61 commercial nature,
62 Dost Muhammad's
63 views of self-aggrane
64 dizement,
65 His anxiety to re-
66 cover Peshawar,
67 But the English res~
68 pect their treaty with
69 the Mahardjd.
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