1 14 EARLY HISTORY OF THE PUNJAUB.
2 one of the parties, an opening was frequently
3 found to eject both.
4 Amongst the chieftains who profited by this
5 state of things, Churut Singh and Maha Singh
6 were the most fortunate. After a series of in-
7 trigues and collisions extending over a period of
8 twenty years, from 1773 to 1791, the former being
9 accidentally killed, the latter found himself master
10 of a considerable amount of territory, which he
11 administered to the advantage of his family until
12 1792, when he died, leaving his son, the famous
13 Runjeet Singh.
14 The history of Runjeet Singh, his gradual
15 aggrandizement until he became sole ruler of
16 the entire Punjaub, his relations with the Aff-
17 ghans, the Scindian and the British government,
18 down to the period of his death, have been so
19 frequently before English readers in connection
20 with the late operations of the British army
21 across the Indus, that the repetition of the detail
22 in this work is totally superfluous. It will be
23 suflicient for present purposes to describe the
24 course of events from the hour of his demise to
25 the present moment.