1 INTRODUCTION.
2 The following* pages have been compiled partly from native
3 manuscripts, and partly from information collected from Seik
4 Sirdars, and European officers in the Seik service ; but chiefly
5 from the notes of a Captain Gardner of the Seik Artillery,
6 who has for several years past supplied important informa-
7 tion to the British Government without betraying his own,*
8 as all the intrigues he brought to light were those of the
9 Jummoo family, and their coadjutor the Pundit; and there
10 is every reason to believe Captain Gardner could give
11 further information, and prove that the Dogra chiefs
12 were at the bottom of the Cabul insurrection! An insur-
13 rection, which, in all probability, never would have taken
14 place, had Lord Auckland followed the suggestions of Sir
15 William Macnaghten regarding the Punjaub, on the death
16 of No Nihal Singh j for then it was the Envoy declared the
17 tripartite treaty at an end, as Sheer Sing who had usurped
18 the rajh, could not, by the most forced construction, be con-
19 sidered the posterity of Runjeet Sing ; and all those who had
20 made themselves acquainted with the History of the Punjaub
21 must have been aware of this, as Suda Kour's attempt to pass
22 off the two children (Sheer Sing and Tara Sing) on the Seik
23 chief, as the twin sons of her daughter, Metab Kour, is
24 stated in Mr. Prinsep's Life of the old Maharajh j and I might
25 bring forward the authority of many others, well informed
26 upon the subject, from General Ventura to Mr. Vigne; but it
27 is useless discussing this point, for it is as well known that
28 Sheer Sing was not the son of the Maharajh, as it is that
29 * To give an idea of Captain Gardner's knowledge of Seik affairs, I may mention
30 that Major Lawrence, in writing to me from Katmandoo, observed, " If I was in
31 Broadfoot's place I should like to have Gardner at my elbow."