Rulers of India (Volume 17 ) (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1905 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IX On The Brink Of A Catastrophe The lull which followed the surrender of Dost Muhammad was broken for awhile in December by a rising among the Durani clans to the west of Kandahar. A policy which excluded the chiefs of the Shah's own tribe from any share in the offices and dignities engrossed by a band of greedy upstarts could hardly fail to inflame their discontent with a rule enforced by the continued presence of foreign bayonets. One of the chiefs, named Aktar Khan, bore a special grudge against the ministers who had rejected his claim to the lordship of Zamindawar. Calling his followers into the field, he routed a body of the Shah's troops on the 29th of December, and took their guns. Five days later his own troops were badly beaten by the force which Farrington had led out from Kandahar; and the hard winter froze up the revolt. Before leaving Jalalabad, Cotton had made his command over to General Elphinstone, whom Lord Auckland had induced against his will, --for he felt himself too old and infirm for such a duty, --to come up from India and take Cotton's place. ' You will have nothing to do here: all is peace, ' said the departing general to his successor, who was destined never to see India again. In the following February Macnaghten himself, writing from Jalalabad, declared the general tranquillity to be ' perfectly miraculous, ' as if the Afghan winter had nothing to do with the seeming miracle. The Envoy in truth saw only what he wished to see, and was always oscillating between his professed belief in Shah Shuja's popularity and his settled conviction that the country must be occupied by our troops for many years to come. If he could only have had a free hand aided by an unlimited purse, he might have succeeded in playing out the ' beautiful...