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Rh a clan of the former, as has been said, belonged these princes; to a clan of the latter (the Bárakzái) belonged a family whose members were once their lieutenants, but within recent years had supplanted them. They were represented in Kábul by Dost Muhammad Khán; in Kandahar by his brothers, Kohun Dil Khán and others. The Bárakzái confederacy, though successful against Sháh Shujá, had difficulties of its own. The Kandahár brothers looked with greed towards Herát, and with anxiety towards Persia; Dost Muhammad could not rest so long as Pesháwar was in Sikh hands. It had belonged to the kingdom of Afghánistán; but had been wrested from the Bárakzáis in 1834 by the Sikhs, through the treachery of Sultan Muhammad Khán, its ruler, another of Dost Muhammad's brothers. To recover Pesháwar had been the aim of overtures from Dost Muhammad to Lord William Bentinck, and on his arrival in 1836 to Lord Auckland. These failing, he had addressed himself to Persia, had dispatched an emissary to St. Petersburg, and was now awaiting the result.

In the Punjab, the Mahárájá Ranjít Singh, surrounded by his Sikh host, was approaching his last hour. But in spite of chronic intemperance he retained complete control of affairs. He had been angered at the interdict laid by Lord Auckland on his projected enterprise in 1836 against Sind. But the old man had no wish to try conclusions with the British army. 'What the Governor-General whispers in my ear, that will I do,' was his reply to Lord