1 252 APPROAGH OF THE SIKH ARMY.
2 expected to arrive at Peshawr!* Had the Ma-
3 haraja himself been able to accompany us as
4 he wished and intended; these vexatious delays
5 .and evasions would not have been tried; but
6 as he remained at Lahore, his officers were
7 aware that Colonel Wade had not the power
8 of exerting his personal influence; who knew,
9 from his intimate knowledge of their. court,
10 that it-was only by tepeating his applications
11 that they were ever likely to attend to them.
12 "We now heard of the near approach to
13 - Attok of ‘the Sikh army, amounting to at least
14 * « Lieutenant-Colonél Wade arrived at Peshawr with
15 the Shah Zada about the middle of March, 1839. His
16 first object was, of cgurse, ta ascertain whether the Maho-
17 medan contingent which the Sikhs were to’ provide was
18 forthcoming; but, although nearly nine months had
19 elapsed since the Sikhs were made aware of their obliga-
20 tion to fulfil that article of the treaty, and Lord Auckland
21 in his conference with Ranjeet Singh ‘had particularly
22 pressed the matter on his attention, and’ repeated represen-
23 tations had been made-by the Lieutenant-Colonel to obtain
24 the production of “ thiede—the only organized troops on
25 which he had to rely—yet he had the mortification to
26 find that not only had nothing been done, but that no
27 orders had been issued to assemble them.”~-From the
28 United Service Magazine for 1842, pp. 477, 478.