Machine transcription
-78-
that their important men were killed, their army was destroyed,
Shahshuja was thrown out, and the prestige of the British was cast
to the dust and disgrace, and those who had driven Amir Dost
Mohamed Khan from his country, had to bring him back to his
throne with the same grandeur and honour as before and to place
him on the throne of Afghanistan. Furthermore, that pact which
had been projected in 1837. A. D. was once again revived in 1855,
A.D. and 1857. A.D. During the years when the Russians found a
footing in Central Asia and came nearer the northern borders of
Afghanistan, the English made their position stronger in the
Punjab. John Lawrence, the governor of the Punjab, the advocate
of the Back to the Indus Policy, who considered the natural boundry
to be the Indus river returned to India as a Viceroy. Between
these two there was an affinity of thought. In the like manner Lord
Mayo too agreed with the Amir, but with the appointment of Lord
Northbrook as a Viceroy (who belonged to the Forward Policy )-
whatever effort was Amir Shair Ali Khan made regarding an agree-
ment with the English against the Russians, no attention was paid
to his proposals, even the promise to give help in case of Russian
aggressive was not given. Amir Shair Ali Khan's desire to offi-
cially acknowledge Sirdar Abdullah Khan as heir was also opposed
and due to a regrettable lack of appreciation of the opportunity
on the part of the Viceroy and his English statesment the Amir of
Afghanistan was compelled to turn his face away from the English
and to incline himself towards the Russians. The Russian represen-
tative at Kabul had, therefore, to be received by the king of Afghanis-
tan. This favourable attitude of the Afghan king towards the Rus-
sians,quite naturally displeased the English,and made them realise their
own mistakes, and they began to have doubts about the Afghan
monarch. After that Silya Sabri and Lytton occupied the
viceroyalty of India respectively and arrived at Simla. Lord
Lytton had come with instructions from England saying that
at whatever cost possible, he was to win back the king of the Afghans
and his rightful heir, and to fall in with their views. But once again
the matter slipped out of their hands, for the Afghan King of such
enlightment and a man of such stout purpose, could not over throw all
his engagements with the Russians, and to expel the Russian represen-
tative from Kabul and to receive the English Agent in his stead. This
Roughly two thirds of characters agree with a modern printed edition of the same text. Much of the disagreement is editorial, not misreading. Treat the transcription as a finding aid and read the page image before quoting. How this was measured.
