1 A. D. 1815. AND SHAH SHOOJA. — HIS ADVENTURES, 103
2 for recovery of the prisoner, but the Shah succeeded in
3 reaching the hills, where he was hospitably received by
4 the petty Raja of Kishteewar. Here he collected a body
5 of 3000 men, and in the winter season made an attempt oq
6 Kashmeer : but the cold prevented his passing the Peer-
7 Punjal range, and his troops dispersed. His condition
8 was now desperate, but after a long and circuitous jour-
9 ney over the Kooloo mountains with few attendants, and
10 fewer comforts, he atlast, in September 1816, joined his
11 family at Loodeeana, and placed himself under the pro-
12 tection of the British Government. A provision of
13 50,000 Rs. per annum was assigned for the maintenance
14 of the Shah in his exile, while he might remain in the
15 British territory. With the intermission of one unfortu-
16 nate enterprize, he was led to engage in for the recovery
17 of his lost power, after tlie murder of Ft teh Khan in
18 1818, he has since continued to avail himself of this
19 asylum, and he has been joined at Loodeeana by his
20 sightless brother Shah Zuman, whom, with his family
21 already in abject poverty, Rlnjeet Singh took no
22 trouble to detain. To this prince a separate allowance
23 of 24,000 Rupees per annum has been assigned. The
24 chronological order of events has been somewhat antici-
25 pated, in order to bring the misfortunes of these princes
26 into one connected relation. The first expedition of
27 RuNJEET Singh against Kashmeer will take ns back
28 into the year 1814. The events, however, which pre-
29 ceded or attended it, will more fitly form the subject of
30 another chapter.