1 222 SINDE.
2 surgents retired. They soon, however, returned, deposed the
3 Kuloora prince once more, and took possession of his throne and
4 power. The ruler of Kabool again advanced to maintain the
5 rights of his dependent, but the usurpers had collected an army
6 superior to that of the Afghans, which they totally defeated.
7 This was in 1786. Fortune being against the Afghan prince, it
8 only remained for him to make the best terms he could. The bat-
9 tle was followed by negotiation; in virtue of which, the Talpoor
10 chief engaged to discharge all arrears of tribute, and to meet the
11 accruing payments in future with punctuality. Within little
12 more than three years, presuming on the inability of the nominal
13 emperor to coerce them, the rulers of Sinde signified their indis-
14 position to paying tribute at all, and the weakness of the Duranic
15 government insured to them for a time impunity. Zeman Shah
16 approached their frontier in 1794, to enforce the demand of his
17 house, but was prevailed on to return with a small portion only of
18 the arrears due. A similar result attended the advance of Shao-
19 jab-ool-Moolk in 1809. He received a sum equal to something
20 more than one-third of the amount which had accumulated, and re-
21 turned, perhaps not altogether indisposed to congratulate himself
22 on his good fortune in obtaining any thing. The disturbances
23 which subsequently prevailed in Afghanistan were admirably cal-
24 culated to gratify the dislike of the Ameers to dispensing any part
25 of their treasures in the shape of tribute.
26 The government of Sinde, under the Talpoor dynasty, has
27 Puli: been quaintly described by Kennedy,! as “‘a tailor-like personifi-
28 cation of royalty, requiring precisely nine Ameers or princes to
29 make up one sovereign.” In 1786, when Meer Futteh Ali, the
30 Belooche chief of the Talpoor tribe, succeeded in expelling the
31 tie pa) Calora dynasty, and was recognized by the Durani monarch,” he
32 Outram, 29, assigned large tracts of country to those of his relatives who had
33 aided his enterprise to Sohrab Khyrpoor and Northern Sinde, to
34 Thara Meerpoor in the south-east, with the adjoining country,
35 at the same time investing them with independent powers,
36 He reserved Hyderabad and the greater part of the country
37 for himself and his three brothers, residing with them in the
38 same palace, and publicly administering the government with
39 them in the same common durbar (hall of audience). Thus the
40 country became divided into the three states—Hyderabad, Khyr-
41 poor, and Meerpoor—each having their little knot of Ameers, or