1 226 SINDE.
2 the force of our arms within their dominions; had that been the
3 “case,” he Gontinues, “ their conduct would doubtless have been
4 ofa very different nature towards the late missions to their court.”
5 Those missions were treated in various instances with great
6 indecorum, and attempts were made to cast indignity on them
7 in matters of etiquette and ceremony. In 1809, however, a treaty
8 ' Corresp. relating was concluded,’ the most important article of which was the
9 to Sinde.
10 following : “The government of Sinde will not allow the esta-
11 blishment of the tribe of the French in Sinde;” it being then an
12 important point to exclude from the vicinity of our Indian posses-
13 sions an enemy who- had long been desirous of attacking them.
14 In 1820, another treaty was-concluded, the chief object of which
15 seems to have been the exclusion of European and American
16 adventurers from the dominions of the Ameers. .A new treaty
17 was formed in 1832, the most important provisions of which are
18 those relating to the opening of the roads and the river of Sinde
19 to the merchants of India. This privilege is stipulated for by
20 the third article, and by the fifth, fixed and moderate duties are
21 ‘ to be levied; but the concession was shackled by three conditions:
22 First, that no military stores should pass; second, that no armetl
23 vessel or boat should come by the river ; and third, that no English
24 merchant should settle in Sinde, but should come as occasion
25 might require, transact their business, and return to India. The
26 third restriction was a step in retrogression, it having been stipu-
27 lated in the treaty of 1820, that ‘if any of the subjects of either
28 of the two states (the British and the Sindian) should establish
29 their residence in the dominions of the other, and should conduct
30 themselves in an orderly and peaceable manner in the territory to
31 which they may emigrate, they will be allowed to remain in that
32 situation.” The change sufficiently marks the jealous feeling of
33 the Ameers towards the British Government; while the first and
34 second of the restrictions operated materially to diminish the
35 value of the opening of the Indus. A commercial treaty was
36 concluded in the same year, and thus rested the relations of the
37 Anglo-Indian Government and Sinde till 1886, when Runjeet
38 Singh prepared to carry into effect.a design which he had long
39 meditated, of reducing Sinde to subjection to himself. By the
40 interposition of the Government, however, he was prevailed upon
41 to suspend his progress, and the opportunity being thought
42 favourable for establishing a closer connection with Sinde, Colonel