Tempo:
HISTORY OF THE SIKHS
208
respondence.^ The Barakzai chief, Sultan Muhammad Khan, was, however, made to lead as prisoners to Ludhiana the Ghilzai rebels who had sought an asylum in his fief ol Kohat, near Peshawar, and whose near presence disturbed the antagonistic rule of the arbitrary Shah and his moderate English allies.-
1840.
Death of Maharaja
Kharak Singh. 5th
Nov.
1840.
Death of the Prince
Nau Nihal Singh, 5th
Nov.
chap, viii
1840.
Nau Nihal* Singh thus seemed to have overcome the danger which threatened him on the side of England, and to be on the eve of reducing the overgrown power of his grandfather's favourites. At the same time the end of the Maharaja's life was evidently approaching; and although his decline was credibly declared to have been hastened by drugs as well as by unfilial harshness, there were none who cared for a ruler so feeble and unworthy. Karak Singh at last died on the 5th November 1840, prematurely old and care-worn, at the age of thirty-eight, and Nau Nihal Singh became a king in name as well as in power; but; the same day dazzled him with a crown and deprived him of life. He had performed the last rites at the funeral pyre of his father, and he was passing under a covered gateway with the eldest son of Gulab Singh by his side, when a portion of the structure fell, and killed the minister's nephew on the spot, and so seriously injured the prince that he became senseless at the time, and expired during the night. It is not positively known that the Rajas of Jammu thus designed to remove Nau Nihal Singh; but it is difficult to acquit them of the crime, and it is certain that they were capable of committing it. Self-defence is- the only palliation, for it is equally certain that the prince was compassing their degradation, and, perhaps, their destruction."^ Nau Nihal Singh was killed in his twentieth Government to Mr. Clerk,
1st Oct. 1840, and Mr. Clerk 1840. Cf., however, Col. Steinbach (Punjab, p. 23), who states that the prince was rousing Nepal as well as Kabul to aid him in expelling the English; forgetful 1
to
Government, 9th Dec.
that Nau Nihal Singh's first object was to make himself master of the Punjab by destroying the Jammu Rajas. - Government to Mr. Clerk, 12th Oct., and Mr. Clerk to Government, 14th May, 10th Sept., and 24th Oct. 1840. Cf. Mr. Clerk to Governm.ent, 6th, 7th, and 10th Nov. 1840, who, further, in his memorandum of 1842, drawn up for Lord Ellenborough, mentions Gen. Ventura's opinion that the fall of the gateway was accidental. Lieut -Col. Steinbach, Punjab (p. 24), and Major Smith, Reigning Family of Lahore (p. 35, &c.) may be quoted as giving some particulars, the latter on the authority of an eye-witness, a European adven"'
known as Capt. Gardner, who was present a part of the time, and whose testimony is unfavourable to Raja Dhian Singh. [The scene of this tragedy was the gateway in the fort
turer,
208
respondence.^ The Barakzai chief, Sultan Muhammad Khan, was, however, made to lead as prisoners to Ludhiana the Ghilzai rebels who had sought an asylum in his fief ol Kohat, near Peshawar, and whose near presence disturbed the antagonistic rule of the arbitrary Shah and his moderate English allies.-
1840.
Death of Maharaja
Kharak Singh. 5th
Nov.
1840.
Death of the Prince
Nau Nihal Singh, 5th
Nov.
chap, viii
1840.
Nau Nihal* Singh thus seemed to have overcome the danger which threatened him on the side of England, and to be on the eve of reducing the overgrown power of his grandfather's favourites. At the same time the end of the Maharaja's life was evidently approaching; and although his decline was credibly declared to have been hastened by drugs as well as by unfilial harshness, there were none who cared for a ruler so feeble and unworthy. Karak Singh at last died on the 5th November 1840, prematurely old and care-worn, at the age of thirty-eight, and Nau Nihal Singh became a king in name as well as in power; but; the same day dazzled him with a crown and deprived him of life. He had performed the last rites at the funeral pyre of his father, and he was passing under a covered gateway with the eldest son of Gulab Singh by his side, when a portion of the structure fell, and killed the minister's nephew on the spot, and so seriously injured the prince that he became senseless at the time, and expired during the night. It is not positively known that the Rajas of Jammu thus designed to remove Nau Nihal Singh; but it is difficult to acquit them of the crime, and it is certain that they were capable of committing it. Self-defence is- the only palliation, for it is equally certain that the prince was compassing their degradation, and, perhaps, their destruction."^ Nau Nihal Singh was killed in his twentieth Government to Mr. Clerk,
1st Oct. 1840, and Mr. Clerk 1840. Cf., however, Col. Steinbach (Punjab, p. 23), who states that the prince was rousing Nepal as well as Kabul to aid him in expelling the English; forgetful 1
to
Government, 9th Dec.
that Nau Nihal Singh's first object was to make himself master of the Punjab by destroying the Jammu Rajas. - Government to Mr. Clerk, 12th Oct., and Mr. Clerk to Government, 14th May, 10th Sept., and 24th Oct. 1840. Cf. Mr. Clerk to Governm.ent, 6th, 7th, and 10th Nov. 1840, who, further, in his memorandum of 1842, drawn up for Lord Ellenborough, mentions Gen. Ventura's opinion that the fall of the gateway was accidental. Lieut -Col. Steinbach, Punjab (p. 24), and Major Smith, Reigning Family of Lahore (p. 35, &c.) may be quoted as giving some particulars, the latter on the authority of an eye-witness, a European adven"'
known as Capt. Gardner, who was present a part of the time, and whose testimony is unfavourable to Raja Dhian Singh. [The scene of this tragedy was the gateway in the fort
turer,
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