1 CHAPTER VI.
2 CONQUEST OF THE PUNJAB.
3 The kingdom of Lahore was now firmly established,
4 though twenty years of hard and constant fighting
5 were yet to intervene ere its ruler could claim the
6 title, Lord of the Punjab. The northern and central
7 districts, together with the provinces of Multan,
8 Peshawar, and Kashmir, were still in the hands of
9 Muhammadan chiefs and governors, while many even
10 of the Sikh sirdars remained unsubdued. In the
11 present chapter we shall briefly trace the steps by
12 which Ranjit Singh extended his power, westward up
13 to and even beyond the banks of the Indus, south-
14 wards to Multan, and northwards to the borders of
15 Tibet. It was not a series of easy victories, but of
16 fierce and stubborn contests, which a leader with
17 less determination than Ranjit Singh could never
18 have won. That the Sikhs venerate the memory of
19 their great Maharaja is little to be wondered at :
20 his conquest of the Punjab was an achievement of
21 which Napoleon himself, with the same means at his
22 disposal, might have been proud.
23 In his talent for military organization Ranjit Singh
24 stands supreme amongst Indian leaders, though others