A history of the Sikhs, from the origin of the nation to the battles of the Sutlej.

CHAP. VII

CAPTAIN WADE

183

at Barrackpore, and he wished to know whether native 1827.
troops had been employed in quelling it.' On the arrival of Lord
Lord Amherst at Simla, in 1827, a further degree of intimacy Amherst,
became inevitable; a mission of welcome and inquiry was the British
Governorsent to wait upon his lordship, and the compliment was General
returned by the deputation of Capt. Wade, the British 1827.
frontier authority, to the Maharaja's court.2 During the
following year the English Commander-in-Chief arrived Lord Comat Ludhiana, and Ranjit Singh sent an agent to convey to bermere,
the British
him his good wishes; but an expected invitation to visit Commandthe strongholds of the Punjab was not given to the captor of er-in-Chief.
Bharatpur.3
The little business to be transacted between the British Capt.Wade
and Sikh governments was entrusted to the management of made the
immediate
the Resident at Delhi, who gave his orders to Capt. Murray, agent for
the affairs
1 Capt. Wade to the Resident at Delhi, 24th Sept. and 30th Nov. of Lahore,
1826, and 1st Jan. 1827. Cf. Murray; Ranjit Singh, p. 145. [The 1827.
mutiny at Barrackpore was the result of the disinclination of the
troops to go on service in Burma. There were three native regiments
at this station-26th, 47th, and 62nd-and all of them became disaffected. On 1st Nov. 1824, the 47th broke into open mutiny.
English troops were sent to the station, and the 47th were dispersed
by artillery and the regiment was struck off the army list. The other
two regiments escaped without punishment.-ED.]
2 Government to Capt. Wade, 2nd May, 1827.
3 Murray, Ranjft Singh, p. 147. About this time the journeyings
and studies of the enthusiastic scholar Csoma de Koros, and the
establishment of Simla as a British post, had made the Chinese of
Tibet as curious about the English in one way as Ranjit Singh was
in another. Thus the authorities at Garo appear to have addressed
the authorities of Biss6hir, an English dependency, saying, 'that
in ancient times there was no mention of the " Filingha " (i.e.
Faranghis or Franks), a bad and small people, whereas now many
visited the upper countries every year, and had caused the chief of
Bissehir to make preparations for their movements. The Great Lama
was displeased, and armies had been ordered to be watchful. The
English should be urged to keep within their own limits, or, if they
wanted an alliance, they could go by sea to Pekin. The people of
Bissehir should not rely on the wealth and the expertness in warfaring
of the English: the emperor was 30 paktsat (120 miles) higher than
they; he ruled over the four elements; a war would involve the
six nations of Asia in calamities; the English should remain within
their boundaries; '-and so on, in a strain of deprecation and hyperbole. (Political Agent Sabathu to Resident at Delhi, 26th March
1827.)