1850.] VISIT TO CASHMERE. 249 very, very difficult to crown; and supposing this to have been done, it would be necessary to proceed slowly, to allow of the road in rear being made passable for provision-animals and ammunition. As to baggage, that must not be thought of while fighting our way from Mozufferabad to Cashmere. With Sir Charles Napier as Commander-in-chief I should be well pleased to be employed in such a war, and to command the advance, but I know of no other officer, under whom I would desire or seek to hold such a command." The Maharajah of Cashmere, Gholab Singh, received Sir Colin with marked attention, sending his son, Ranbhir Singh, the present ruler, to meet him as he approached the capital, and conduct him to the garden appropriated to Sir Henry Lawrence, who did not arrive till some days later. The short time Sir Colin remained in Cashmere was devoted to complimentary visits exchanged between the Maharajah and himself, a review of troops, entertainments given by Gholab Singh, a trip to the lake, and an inspection of some of the shawl manufactories. After a few days' enjoyment of the society of Sir Henry and Lady Lawrence, Sir Colin, who was deeply impressed with the beauty of the scenery, and much gratified by the attention he had received, started again for Peshawur. The heat and fatigue of the return journey, which was performed under a scorching sun, laid him prostrate with fever. Though a sharp attack, he soon threw it off, not, however, with out exciting the apprehensions of Sir Charles Napier, who became very uneasy regarding him, and suggested his removal to Simla, or to the Murree hills, with the remark that "no one in India could be more anxious about him than his own Commanderin-chief,”—no idle compliment, since in repeated letters he had informed Sir Colin that, in case the latter vacated the Peshawur command, "there was no onc upon whom he could lay his hands to replace him." A few weeks after his return to Peshawur, Sir Colin's attention was again called to the unsatisfactory relations existing between the Afreedees and the British authorities on the subject of the free passage of the Kohat Pass. Lieutenant Lumsden,1 the Deputy Commissioner, had recommended to the Lahore Government the proposition made by the tribes to renew their former friendly relations with us. This policy was cordially endorsed by Sir Colin. The information he had collected with reference to the country inhabited by the tribes occupying the district of Teerah, in the vicinity of the Kohat Pass, led him to the conclusion that an attempt to subjugate these people would be an enterprise requiring serious consideration. His views he embodied in a long letter to Sir Henry Lawrence, with whom he had previously discussed the matter in Cashmere. One of the chief difficulties, in his opinion, lay in the approach to Teerah, "the nearest route to which from Peshawur," he remarked, " is not by Kohat, as I believed, and mentioned to you in Cashmere, but 1 Lieutenant-General Sir H. B. Lumsden, K.C.S.I., C.B. 1850.] THE HILL. TRIBES. 251 by the bed of the branch of the Bara river, from which this city and cantonment (Peshawur) is supplied with water. It is full of large stones and rocks, and impracticable for artillery, save mounted on elephants; and this rough road is necessarily overhung and commanded throughout by high ground, very difficult of access. The movement of a column of troops with its encumbrance of baggage and stores through a pass such as the Khyber or that of Kohat, the extent and difficulties of which are known, is an affair of not very difficult management; but the movement of a body of our troops, with its baggage and ammunition, in the interior of these mountains, which are without roads, is an undertaking of a more responsible character, where every man is armed and an enemy." The opposition of the Afreedees, judging from what he saw in the recent expedition to Kohat, he reckoned of little account; "but they are not to be overtaken; they fly before you faster than you can follow, and a retreat is open to them even into Afghanistan. I scarcely think one could manage in such a country to drive them into a corner, even by the employment of two or three columns, because it is their practice, I am told, to abandon their mud-houses or huts, which they occupy during the summer months in the Teerah districts, and remove with their oxen and families to the lower slopes of the hills on this as well as on the Afghanistan side of the range, and inhabit caves, which they dig in the sides of the hills. When alarmed they send off their women, mounting the aged and sick on their cattle, and hide. the little grain they possess, the men taking to the hills to oppose those by whom they have been disturbed." Sir Colin was of opinion that "to effectually reduce these hill-people immediately in our front to our rule, or at any rate to afford a fair chance of doing this, operations should be undertaken, at the same time, from both sides of the range of hills which they inhabit, when one party would be able to drive them upon the bayonets of the other party; but then, before any such plan can be carried into effect, we must first establish ourselves at Candahar and Cabul, unless the Dost, which is not very likely, would come to our aid from his side." The difficulties attending the operation, and the probably insignificant result of them, led him to believe that Sir Henry Lawrence would "be glad to take advantage of the opening the Afreedees have afforded by their petition to Lumsden to accept their terms, if the security they have offered for their future behaviour is at all to be depended on. . . . " 1 In December Sir Charles Napier resigned the command of the army of India, to Sir Colin's great regret, and was succeeded by Sir William Gomm,2 an old brother officer of the 9th Regiment in Peninsular days. 1 The proposition made by the Afreedees having been accepted by the Board of Administration at Lahore, matters remained quiet on the Kohat frontier. 2 The late Field-Marshal Sir William Maynard Gomm, G.C.B., Colonel of the Coldstream Guards and Constable of the Tower. CHAPTER VII. JOURNAL-GOVERNOR-GENERAL VISITS PESHAWUR-TEMPORARY COMMAND OF DIVISION-RAID OF MOMUNDS-CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD DALHOUSIE-ORGANISATION OF FRONTIER DEFENCE-SIR COLIN'S SCHEME APPROVED-IRRUPTION OF MOMUNDS-SIR COLIN MOVES OUT AGAINST THEM-CONSTRUCTION OF FORT MICHNI ROAD MADE-FORCE RETURNS TO PESHAWUR-VIEWS ON DEFENCE OF FRONTIER -FRESH TROUBLES WITH MOMUNDS-AFFAIR OF PANJ-PAO-DIFFERENCE WITH BOARD OF ADMINISTRATION-SIR COLIN PRESSED TO ENTER SWAT-DECLINES WITHOUT ORDERS FROM COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OPERATIONS AGAINST THE OOTPRANGURH- ISKAKOTE-DESTRUCTION OF VIL MAN-KHEYLS LAGES IN RANIZAI-LETTER TO SIR H. LAWRENCE-RESIGNATION "Journal, 3d January.-Another year begun and I am still in the East. Stern duty and obligations to fulfil towards others have kept me here, and not any liking or inclination of my own. But these, thank God, are very nearly completed, and I completed, and I may soon, I hope, think of doing what may be agreeable to my own feelings, without any detriment to the interests of those who are beholden to me." Early in March the Governor-General paid a visit to Peshawur. His arrival was anticipated by Sir |