1 128 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 eager to join in an alliance with the British if they,
3 in return for his friendship, would aid him in regain-
4 ing possession of the province of Peshawar. To
5 promise compliance with this request was obviously
6 impossible. Ranjit Singh may have found Peshawar
7 a costly and troublesome possession to hold, but the
8 last person in the world to whom he was prepared to
9 surrender it was Dost Muhammad Khan. Moreover,
10 the Sikh ruler was still smarting from the check that
11 had been imposed on him in Sind ; and to have
12 forced him at such a time, and with less excuse than
13 before, to make another and much greater sacrifice,
14 would have been as unwarrantable as it would have
15 been inexpedient.
16 In 1837 the Persians laid siege to Herat, and
17 Lord Auckland became more anxious than ever to
18 establish British influence at Kabul. An alliance
19 with Dost Muhammad at the expense of the friend-
20 ship of Ranjit Singh was not to be thought of ; and
21 the Governor-General decided, in the event of Burnes's
22 mission proving unsuccessful, to champion the cause
23 of Shah Shuja, who was still a refugee at Ludhiana,
24 and ready to jump at any chance which presented
25 itself of regaining his inheritance. Burnes worked
26 day and night to induce the Amir to give way in
27 the matter of Peshawar, or to modify his demand in
28 such a manner as to render a compromise possible,
29 for he had seen enough in Kabul to convince him
30 that he was dealing with a strong and capable ruler,
31 whose alliance would be of far greater value than
32 that of Shah Shuja, who, however amenable he
33 might be to British influence, would be utterly inca-