Lehal Library

xxiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO 1ST EDITION —on the recommendation again of Mr. Clerk— to proceed to Tibet to see that the ambitious Rajas of Jammu surrendered certain territories which they had seized from the Chinese of Lassa, and that the British trade with Ladakh, &c., was restored to its old footing. He returned at the end of a year, and was present at the interviews between Lord Ellenborough and Dost Muhammad at Ludhiana, and between his lordship and the Sikh chiefs at Ferozepore in December 1842. During part of 1843 he was in civil charge of Ambala; but from the middle of that year till towards the close of 1844, he held the post of personal assistant to Colonel Richmond, the successor of Mr. Clerk. After Major Broadfoot's nomination to the same office, and during the greater part of 1845, the author was employed in the Bahawalpur territory in connexion with refugee Sindhians, and with boundary disputes between the Daudputras and the Rajputs of Bikaner and Jaisalmer. When war with the Sikhs broke out, the author was required by Sir Charles Napier to join his army of co-operation; but after the battle of Ferozeshah, he was summoned to Lord Cough's head-quarters. He was subsequently directed to accompany Sir Harry Smith, when a diversion was made towards Ludhiana, and he was thus present at the skirmish of Badowal and at the battle of Aliwal. He had likewise the fortune to be a participator in the victory of Sobraon, and the further advantage of acting on that important day as an aide-de- camp to the Governor-General. He was then attached to the head-quarters of the Commander-in-Chief, imtil the army broke up at Lahore, when he accompanied Lord Hardinge's camp to the Simla Hills, preparatory to setting out for Bhopal, the political agency in which state and its surrounding districts, his lordship had unexpectedly been pleased to bestow upon him. The author was thus living among the Sikh people for a period of eight years, and during a very important portion of their history. He had intercourse, under every variety of circumstances, with all classes of men, and he had at the same time free access to all the pubIt lic records bearing on the affairs of the frontier. was after being required in 1844, to draw up reports on the British connexion generally with the states on the Sutlej, and especially on the military resources of the Punjab, that he conceived the idea, and felt he had the means, of writing the history whcih he now offers to the puolic. The author's residence in Malwa has been bene-