Page:Sir Henry Lawrence, the Pacificator.djvu/48

Rh additional British troops were approaching Pesháwar, and the successful defence of Jalálábád was more and more making its impression on the native mind, that the tide began to turn, and Lawrence's persistent hold on the Sikh leaders at Pesháwar bore fruit. On March 31, Pollock, who had recently arrived, having received reinforcements, moved forward to Jamrúd, at the mouth of the Kháibar; and Lawrence arranged with the Sikhs that they should force one branch of the Kháibar while Pollock forced the other, and that they should then for two months hold the whole pass up to Alí Masjid and keep open the communications with Pollock's further advance. Mackeson had won the Afrídís to co-operate; but Akbar Khán now appeared on the scene. He detached a portion of his army from the siege of Jalálábád towards Alí Masjid to block the pass; but it failed and returned.

On April 5, Pollock, advancing along the heights right and left of one (the Shadia Bagiaree) branch of the pass, turned the enemy's flank, defeated them so effectively as to clear the route, which was seven miles long, and captured Alí Masjid. The Sikh column too cleared its branch (the Jubbáki), which was fourteen miles in length, fought well, lost some hundred men, joined at Alí Masjid, and became entirely altered in their demeanour. Thus closed in success, for the time at least, the prolonged efforts of Sir George Clerk and Henry Lawrence to retain the support of the Sikhs in this war.

The part which they had now undertaken was to