Page:John Russell Colvin.djvu/111

Rh currence. Captain Burnes, though he hotly contended for the Amír, held the same opinion as to the greeting which Sháh Shujá would meet with.

'As for Sháh Shujá,' he wrote in the letter just referred to, 'the British Government has only to send him to Pesháwar with an agent and two of its own regiments as an honorary escort, and an avowal to the Afgháns that we have taken up his cause, to ensure his being fixed for ever on his throne. The present time (he wrote on June 2, 1838) is perhaps better than any previous to it, for the Afgháns, as a nation, detest Persia; and Dost Muhammad Khán's having gone over to the Court of Teherán, though he believes it to be from dire necessity, converts many a doubting Afghán into a bitter enemy. The Mahárájá's permission has only to be asked for the ex-king's advance to Pesháwar, granting him at the same time some four or five of his regiments which have no Sikhs in their ranks, and Shujá becomes king. He need not move from Pesháwar, but address the Khaibaris, the Kohistánis of Kábul, and all the Afgháns, from that city, that he has the co-operation of the British and the Mahárájá; and with but a little distribution of ready money, say two or three lakhs of rupees, he will find himself the real king of the Afgháns in a couple of months.

A few days later, in the course of replies to a series of questions put to him by Mr. Macnaghten, Captain Burnes stated his conviction that Sháh Shujá would be joined by a considerable portion of Dost Muhammad's troops, as well as by the people of the country. The testimony of Captain Burnes was peculiarly significant, because he was a witness hostile to Sháh Shujá. His vows were all for Dost Muhammad. When