Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 40.djvu/57

 The war was now at an end, and the task of annexing and settling the country was to begin. A great controversy took place as to the necessity for the conquest of Sind, in which Outram and Napier took opposite sides. On the one side it was alleged that Lord Ellenborough and Napier had made up their minds that Sind should be annexed, but that the amirs might have been safely left to rule their country; and that, had they been differently treated, there need have been no war. On the other side it was stated that the disaffection of Sind could not be allayed by pacific measures; that it was ‘the tail of the Afghan storm,’ to use Napier's expression, and that it was necessary to act with promptitude, decision, and firmness. Napier found a state of things bordering on war. For a short time he listened to his political adviser, then he acted for himself, and in the course of a few months Sind was conquered. The conquered country had now to be organised. Napier had a great talent for administration. His administrative staff was composed principally of military men, who were naturally unfavourably criticised by their civilian brethren; but Napier knew he had the support of the governor-general, and he energetically pushed forward the work of settlement. He lost no time in receiving the submission of the chiefs, and he conciliated more than four hundred of them. He organised the military occupation of the country. He established a civil government in all its branches, social, financial, and judicial, and organised an effective police force. He examined in person the principal mouths of the Indus, with a view to commerce, and entered enthusiastically into a scheme to make Karachi the second port of the Indian empire. He was a prolific writer, and, though twice struck down with disease, he maintained a large private correspondence, carried on a considerable public one, and entered into all the schemes for the government of the new state with an energy that never sank under labour. On 24 May 1844 he celebrated the queen's birthday by holding a durbar at Haidarabad, and summoned all the Sindian Baluchi chiefs to do homage. Some three thousand chiefs, with twenty thousand men, attended, and expressed their contentment with the new order of things.

The hot contention on the question of the annexation of Sind had delayed the vote of the thanks of parliament for the success of the military operation, and the vote was not taken until February 1844. The Duke of Wellington had already written to Napier, congratulating him warmly on ‘the two glorious battles of Meanee and Hyderabad;’ and in his place in the House of Lords he stated that he had ‘never known any instance of an officer who had shown in a higher degree that he possesses all the qualities and qualifications necessary to enable him to conduct great operations. He has maintained the utmost discretion and prudence in the formation of his plans, the utmost activity in all the preparations to insure his success, and, finally, the utmost zeal and gallantry and science in carrying them into execution.’ Sir Robert Peel was enthusiastic in his admiration not only for Napier's character and military achievements, but for the matter and form of his despatches. ‘No one,’ he said, ‘ever doubted Sir Charles Napier's military powers; but in his other character he does surprise me—he is possessed of extraordinary talent for civil administration.’ To Edward Coleridge, Peel said that as a writer he was much inclined to rank Charles Napier above his brother William; that not only he, but all the members of the government who had read his letters and despatches from Sind, had been immensely struck by their masterly clearness of mind and vigour of expression. Napier was made a G.C.B., and on 21 Nov. 1843 was given the colonelcy of the 22nd regiment. He was quite content, and, speaking of Wellington's praise of him, said: ‘The hundred-gun ship has taken the little cock-boat in tow, and it will follow for ever over the ocean of time.’

At the end of 1844 Napier began his campaign against the hill tribes on the northern frontier, who had been raiding into Sind. He reached Sakhar the week before Christmas 1844. He made Sakhar his base for his operations against Beja Khan Dumki, the leading hill chief, and his eight thousand followers. Napier's men were attacked by fever, and the greater part of the 78th highlanders perished. Beja heard of the sickness, and, presuming that it would stop Napier's operations, the hillmen remained with their flocks and herds on the level and comparatively fertile land at the foot of the Kachi hills. Napier then suddenly sallied forth in three columns, moved by forced marches, surprised the tribes, captured thousands of cattle, most of their grain supply, forced the enemy into the hills, and waited at the entrances to the passes for his guns and commissariat. It was early in January 1845 when the advance began. His energetic operations and the indefatigable exertions of Jacob and Fitzgerald with the irregular horse soon put him in possession of Pulaji, Shahpur, and Ooch, with small loss. But Beja Khan was not easily caught, and it was