1 154 MISSION OF LT. BURNES UP THE INDUS, A. D. 1830.
2 anticipated on the part of the rulers of Sindh to allowing
3 them passage through the Delta and lower part of the
4 river, but it was assumed that the governing Meers,
5 situated as they were relatively to Runjeet Singh
6 on one hand, and the British Government on the other,
7 would not readily incur the risk of offending both powers,
8 by refusing a passage altogether, if it were insisted
9 upon.
10 Sir John Malcolm, having received the horses, for-
11 warded them to Kuchh, and appointed to the Mission to
12 Labor, in charge of them, Lieutenant Burnes, the Assis-
13 tant to Colonel Potting er, who was in Political charge
14 of that district and of the British relations with Sindh.
15 The young officer thus selected had been in the Quarter-
16 Master General's Department, and was in every respect
17 qualified for the duty. With him was sent Ensign Lec-
18 KIE, as a companion, and to take the charge, in case of
19 any thing happening to Lieutenant Burnes. Sir John
20 Malcolm added to the dray horses the present of a
21 carriage of his own, as useless an article to Runjeet
22 Singh as the mares. The highly ornamental carriage
23 sent to him by Lord Minto in 1810, after being used
24 for a few days as a novel plaything, had ever since
25 remained neglected in the great arsenal at Labor. The
26 carriage and horses, however, being laden in appropriate
27 vessels, were dispatched from Kuchh towards the end of
28 the year 1830, and Sir John Malcolm thought the
29 most politic course would be, to send them without previ-
30 ous notice or correspondence with the Meers of Sindh,
31 thinking the necessity they would thus be under of decid-
32 ing suddenly, would be likely to contribute to the success
33 of the expedition.