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 with the Heratees, and, as it was the first time a British officer had appeared in Herat in full uniform, ‘a vast crowd went out to gaze at him.’ The negotiations failed, and in May Todd was made the bearer of despatches from McNeill to Lord Auckland, informing him of the condition of affairs. He travelled as an Englishman, but in Afghan dress and without baggage, and his route was by Kandahar, Kabul, and Peshawar. He arrived at Simla on 20 July, having accomplished the ride in sixty days.

On 1 Oct. 1838 Todd was appointed political assistant and military secretary to William Hay Macnaghten [q. v.], the British envoy and minister to Shah Shuja. He was promoted to be brevet captain on 18 Dec. 1838. He arrived with Sir John Keane's army at Kandahar in April 1839. Eldred Pottinger [q. v.] was the political agent at Herat, but it was decided to send Todd on a special mission to negotiate a treaty with Shah Kamran (London Gazette, 30 Aug. 1839). Todd took with him as his assistant Brevet Captain James Abbott of the Bengal artillery. The mission left Kandahar in June, and arrived at Herat on 25 July. A treaty was concluded with the Shah Kamran, by which he was allowed twenty-five thousand rupees a month on certain conditions, one of which was that he should hold no intercourse with Persia without the knowledge and consent of the British envoy.

After Pottinger's departure for Kabul in September 1839 things went on smoothly at Herat for some months. One of the objects of the mission was to do all that was possible to stop the traffic in slaves by the Central Asia tribes. In this traffic Yar Muhammad Kamran's minister, the khan of Khiva, and the Turkoman tribes towards the Caspian were the chief participants. In December 1839 Todd, on his own responsibility, sent Abbott on a friendly mission to the khan of Khiva to mediate between him and the Russians who were advancing on Khiva, and to negotiate for the release of the Russian captives in slavery. Todd's action was approved.

Early in April 1840 Todd received, through the British chargé d'affaires at Erzeroum, whither the Persian captain had temporarily withdrawn, a letter which the wazir, Yar Muhammad, had written in January in the name of Shah Kamran to the Persian Shah Muhammad; Kamran herein declared himself the faithful servant of the Persian monarch, and stated that he merely tolerated the presence of the British envoy at Herat from motives of expediency. Kamran and his people had been saved from starvation by British aid, and had received over ten lacs of rupees from the Indian government. The act of treachery was, however, pardoned by the governor-general.

On 27 Jan. 1841 Todd was formally gazetted political agent at Herat. From the time of his first arrival at Herat in 1839 he had desired to introduce into Herat a contingent of Indian troops under British officers. Early in 1841 Kamran and his minister proposed to agree to their introduction on condition that 20,000l. was paid down and the monthly subsidy increased. It soon, however, became clear to Todd that Yar Muhammad and his master had no intention of admitting any contingent into Herat, and that the money would be expended in intrigues against the British. He therefore refused to pay the amount, and also stopped the monthly subsidy. Yar Muhammad declared that either the money must be paid or the mission must leave Herat. After submitting to every indignity short of personal violence, Todd withdrew the mission on 9 Feb. 1841 to Kandahar, without having received definite instructions to do so.

Lord Auckland was so exasperated by the unauthorised withdrawal of the mission from Herat that, without waiting for Todd's explanations, Macnaghten was informed of the displeasure of the governor-general, and Todd was removed from the political department and ordered to join his regiment for military duty as a subaltern of artillery. Todd was stunned by this unjust treatment. Macnaghten wrote to comfort him that his ‘conduct had been as admirable as that of Yar Mahomed had been flagitious. And so,’ he added, ‘I told the governor-general.’ But Lord Auckland, who had written to Macnaghten, ‘I am writhing in anger and bitterness at Major Todd's conduct at Herat,’ was obdurate. Todd ceased to be political agent and military secretary to the envoy at Kabul on 24 March 1841, and gave over charge of the Herat political agency on 24 April, when he was posted to the 2nd company of the 2nd battalion of the Bengal artillery. Before joining he went in November to Calcutta, and had a personal interview with the governor-general, but without result. Todd received from Shah Shuja, the amir of Afghanistan, the second class of the order of the Durani Empire, in acknowledgment of his services in the affairs of that country, and he received permission to accept and wear the insignia both of this order and of the Royal Persian order of the Lion and Sun in the ‘London Gazette’ of 26 March 1841.

Todd joined his regiment at Dum Dum in March 1842, having been appointed to com-