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 CHAPTER VIII

The Beginning of Difficulties

On the 18th of September the Bombay force began its march homewards. Instead of making straight from Quetta for the Bolán Pass, Willshire had been ordered by Macnaghten to march southward upon Khelát, the capital of Biluchistán, for the purpose of punishing the ruler of the country, Mehráb Khán, charged by Burnes with divers acts of hostility and bad faith in breach of his treaty with the Indian Government. In vain did the Khán plead his utter powerlessness to restrain Biluchi robbers from plundering our baggage, and to furnish the requisite supplies from a country on the brink of famine. No mercy was to be shown to the chief who had given Sháh Shujá a kindly welcome during his flight in 1834 from Kandahár. On the 13th of November, 1839, Khelát was carried by storm, after a desperate struggle, in which the brave old Khán and eight of his chief officers fell, fighting stubbornly to the last. His dominions were transferred to a kinsman, who was not destined to hold them long. Later inquiries fixed the blame for the Khán's alleged misdeeds upon his crafty Wazír, who had