1 OOOLAUB SINO AND AFFGHANISTAN. 63
2 likewise be inferred that both parties were acting in the affair
3 which ensued as the instruments of, or strongly instigated by,
4 their friends in the Punjaub. The communication with the
5 Barukzyes was kept up through the sirdars of Peshawur, then
6 continual residents at the Court of Lahore, and who acted a
7 prominent part thoughout the whole affair.
8 Rajah Goolaub Sing was in the Hazareh districts when
9 Brigadier Wild arrived on the Attock, and it was through his
10 sinister proceedings that so much difficulty and delay was expe-
11 rienced in crossing that river. In accordance with engagement and
12 in order to keep up appearances, the Mahomedan Brigade in the
13 Seik service was ordered to march with and assist the British
14 troops in the passage through the Khyber Pass, and if necessary
15 to Jullalabad. Now though orders to this effect were pub-
16 licly issued, and the Mahomedan Brigade had already marched,
17 it is an indubitable fact, and one that might easily be proved,
18 that these troops were privately instructed and had received orders
19 to act in a contrary manner. These orders went from the
20 Hazareh country, where Rajah Goolaub Sing was then en-
21 camped and they were conveyed to Peshawar by the hands
22 of one Mirza Mahomed Yar, better known as Mirza Firmar.
23 The manner in which the Seik contingent acted at that time
24 is well known. When the British troops had advanced to the
25 pass, their Punjaub allies becoming, to all appearance, mutinous
26 and insubordinate, returned at the most critical juncture,
27 leaving the British force to its fate. Thus the Seik contingent,
28 in a disorderly manner, marched back to the Attock, where
29 it encamped on the western bank of the river, Rajah
30 Goolaub Sing being encamped on the eastern one. The
31 meaning of this conduct was that it was intended to cause delay
32 and discomfiture to the British in their advance into Affghan-
33 istan ; and it certainly had its expected effect for a time. The
34 disasters that Wild's brigade met with were owing to this cause j
35 had it not been for this, it would have readied Jullalabad
36 much earlier, and much evil and bloodshed might thereby have