Tempo:
CHAP. VII
RETREAT OF DOST MUHAMMAD
191
the Sikhs into disorder. Hari Singh, by feigning a 1836-7. retreat, drew the enemy more fully into the plains; The sikhs the brave leader was present everywhere amid his defeated, retiring and rallying masses, but he fell mortally and Hari wounded, and the opportune arrival of another portion singh of the Kabul forces converted the confusion of the J'he^Afghans Sikhs into a total defeat. But two guns only were lost; retire, the Afghans could not master Jamrud or Peshawar itself, and, after plundering the valley for a few days, they retreated rather than risk a second battle with the reinforced army of Lahore.^
The death of Hari Singh and the defeat of his army R^^Jit caused some anxiety in Lahore; but the Maharaja g^^^ts^^o promptly roused his people to exertion, and all readily retrieve his responded to his call. It is stated that field guns were affairs at dragged from Ramnagar, on the Chenab, to Peshawar Peshawar, in six days, a distance by road of more than two hundred miles.- Ranjit Singh advanced in person to Rohtas, and the active Dhian Singh hastened to the frontier, and set an example of devotion and labour by working with his own hands on the foundations of a regular fort at Jamrud.' Dost Muhammad was buoyed up by ^is negohis fruitless victory, and he became more than ever ^^^t^^^^ost desirous of recovering a province so wholly Afghan; Muhambut Ranjit Singh contrived to amuse him, and the mad and Maharaja was found to be again in treaty with the shah shuja. Amir, and again in treaty with Shah Shuja, and with both at the same time."* But the commercial envoy of "^^^ Engush the English had gradually sailed high up the Indus of ^gdiaung" their imaginary commerce, and to his Government the between the time seemed to have come when political interference sikhs and Afghans,
Wade to Government, 13th and 23rd May and 5th jgg^. July 1837. Cf. Masson, Journeys, iii. 382, 387, and Mohan Lai, 226, &c. Life of Dost Muhammad, 1
Capt.
i.
seems that the Afghans were at first routed or repulsed with the loss of some guns, but that the opportune arrival of Shams-ud-din Khan, a relation of the Amir, with a considerable It
detachment, turned the battle in their favour. It is nevertheless believed that had not Hari Singh been killed, the Sikhs
would have retrieved the day. The troops in the Peshawar valley had been considerably reduced by the withdrawal of large parties to Lahore, to make a display on the occasion of Nau Nihal Singh's marriage, and of the expected visit of the English Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. 2 Lieut. -Col. Steinbach (Punjab, pp. 64, 68) mentions that he had himself marched with his Sikh regiment 300 miles in twelve days, and that the distance had been performed by others in eleven. " Mr. Clerk's Memorandum of 1842, regarding the Sikh chiefs, drawn up for Lord EUenborough. ^ Cf. Capt. Wade to Government, 3rd June 1837, and Government to Capt. Wade, 7th Aug. 1837.
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RETREAT OF DOST MUHAMMAD
191
the Sikhs into disorder. Hari Singh, by feigning a 1836-7. retreat, drew the enemy more fully into the plains; The sikhs the brave leader was present everywhere amid his defeated, retiring and rallying masses, but he fell mortally and Hari wounded, and the opportune arrival of another portion singh of the Kabul forces converted the confusion of the J'he^Afghans Sikhs into a total defeat. But two guns only were lost; retire, the Afghans could not master Jamrud or Peshawar itself, and, after plundering the valley for a few days, they retreated rather than risk a second battle with the reinforced army of Lahore.^
The death of Hari Singh and the defeat of his army R^^Jit caused some anxiety in Lahore; but the Maharaja g^^^ts^^o promptly roused his people to exertion, and all readily retrieve his responded to his call. It is stated that field guns were affairs at dragged from Ramnagar, on the Chenab, to Peshawar Peshawar, in six days, a distance by road of more than two hundred miles.- Ranjit Singh advanced in person to Rohtas, and the active Dhian Singh hastened to the frontier, and set an example of devotion and labour by working with his own hands on the foundations of a regular fort at Jamrud.' Dost Muhammad was buoyed up by ^is negohis fruitless victory, and he became more than ever ^^^t^^^^ost desirous of recovering a province so wholly Afghan; Muhambut Ranjit Singh contrived to amuse him, and the mad and Maharaja was found to be again in treaty with the shah shuja. Amir, and again in treaty with Shah Shuja, and with both at the same time."* But the commercial envoy of "^^^ Engush the English had gradually sailed high up the Indus of ^gdiaung" their imaginary commerce, and to his Government the between the time seemed to have come when political interference sikhs and Afghans,
Wade to Government, 13th and 23rd May and 5th jgg^. July 1837. Cf. Masson, Journeys, iii. 382, 387, and Mohan Lai, 226, &c. Life of Dost Muhammad, 1
Capt.
i.
seems that the Afghans were at first routed or repulsed with the loss of some guns, but that the opportune arrival of Shams-ud-din Khan, a relation of the Amir, with a considerable It
detachment, turned the battle in their favour. It is nevertheless believed that had not Hari Singh been killed, the Sikhs
would have retrieved the day. The troops in the Peshawar valley had been considerably reduced by the withdrawal of large parties to Lahore, to make a display on the occasion of Nau Nihal Singh's marriage, and of the expected visit of the English Governor-General and Commander-in-Chief. 2 Lieut. -Col. Steinbach (Punjab, pp. 64, 68) mentions that he had himself marched with his Sikh regiment 300 miles in twelve days, and that the distance had been performed by others in eleven. " Mr. Clerk's Memorandum of 1842, regarding the Sikh chiefs, drawn up for Lord EUenborough. ^ Cf. Capt. Wade to Government, 3rd June 1837, and Government to Capt. Wade, 7th Aug. 1837.
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