1 118 TROUBLES IN AFGHANISTAN. A. D. 1818.
2 MuHMOOD, and being treacherously seized, was first
3 blinded, and soon after put to death by his order. The
4 Vuzeer had fifty brothers, all at the head of governments,
5 or otherwise in the possession of power and wealth, and
6 the cry to vengeance was general throughout the kingdom.
7 MoHUMMUD UzEEM posted from Kashmeer, leaving
8 a younger brother, Juuur Khan, in the valley. Taking
9 the direction of the measures of resistance organized,
10 he defeated the troops of Kamran, and dislodged his
11 garrisons from the neighbourhood of Kabool, Ghiznee,
12 and Kandahar, so that in a few months the authority of
13 the weak Shah Muhmood, and his rash ill-advised son,
14 was confined to the city and plain of Herat, and the rest
15 of the xVfghan territory was assumed and portioned out in
16 separate governments and independent principalities, by
17 the powerful members of this extensive family. The
18 plea put forward by K AMR AN for his conduct towards
19 the Vuzeer FuTEii Khan, was, his having plundered
20 the property of Feeroz-ood-deen, a prince of the blood
21 royal, whom he expelled from the government of Herat,
22 in order to recover it for Muhmood. The real cause,
23 however, was jealousy of his power and reputation, and
24 the vain conceit entertained by Kamran, that the
25 Vuzeer's abilities could be dispensed with, and affairs
26 conducted as well by the household and family of the
27 imbecile nominal sovereign.
28 The intelligence of these events determined Runjekt
29 Singh to carry his army across the Indus in the ensuing
30 season, more especially as a detachment of Sikhs had
31 recently been overpowered by the Kliutuk Moosulmans,
32 and every motive of policy required, that this should not
33 pass unrevenged. The troops having been called out iu