1 Administration of Ranjit Singh. 123
2 intentions with regard to Sind. He made no secret
3 of his desire to seize Shikarpur, and even hinted his
4 readiness to join in a combined attack on the Amirs,
5 alluding to their late opposition to Captain Burnes as
6 a justification for such a step. But his suggestions
7 met with little response ; and before he broke up his
8 camp he had heard enough to convince him that the
9 British had no intention of engaging in hostilities
10 against Sind, and would regard any such action on
11 his part with the strongest disapproval. Though
12 unwilling to lay aside, even for a time, his plans for
13 territorial extension, he determined at all costs to
14 maintain his alliance with the British intact ; and
15 before the end of the year he had not only prom-
16 ised to abstain from invading Sind, but had agreed
17 to throw open the navigation of the Sutlej in con-
18 tinuation of that of the lower Indus. In 1832
19 Colonel Henry Pottinger, the leader of the Hyderabad
20 mission, succeeded, despite the opposition with which
21 his overtures were at first received, in negotiating a
22 treaty which opened the roads and rivers of Sind to
23 British trade, though forbidding their use for military
24 purposes, and the same year a similar agreement
25 relating to the Sutlej was made with Ranjit Singh.
26 But the tribes of the frontier district, encouraged
27 by the Mir of Khairpur, still continued their depreda-
28 tions; and in 1835 the Governor of Miiltan was
29 forced to take active measures for * their chastise-
30 ment, with the result that the tribesmen were de-
31 feated, and the Sikhs occupied Rojhan, a position
32 some miles south of Mithankote. The Amirs at once
33 made preparations to repel an invasion ; while two