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

196 HISTORY OF THE SIKHS CHAP. VII
1833-5. The connexion of the English with the nations of the
Shah Shu- Indus was about to be rendered more complicated by the
ja's second revived hopes of Shah Shuja. That ill-fated king had taken
expedition up his abode, as before related, at Ludhiana, in the year
to Afghanistan, 1821, and he brooded at his leisure over schemes for the
1833-5. reconquest of Khorasan. In 1826 he was in correspondence
with Ranjit Singh, who ever regretted that the Shah was
The Shah's not his guest or his prisoner.' In 1827 he made propositions
etrures to the British Government, and he was told that he was
English, welcome to recover his kingdom with the aid of Ranjit Singh
1827. or of the Sindians, but that, if he failed, his present hosts
might not again receive him.2 In 1829 the Shah was induced, by the strange state of affairs in Peshawar consequent
on Saiyid Ahmad's ascendancy, to suggest to Ranjit Singh
that, with Sikh aid, he could readily master it, and reign
once more an independent sovereign. The Maharaja
amused him with vain hopes, but the English repeated their
His nego- warning, and the ex-king's hopes soon fell.3 In 1831 they
ith thie again rose, for the Talpur Amirs disliked the approach of
Sindians, English envoys, and they gave encouragement to the tenders
1831;it of their titular monarch.4 Negotiations were reopened with
Ranjit Ranjit Singh, who was likewise out of humour with the
Sngh,3. English about Sind, and he was not unwilling to aid the
Shah in the recovery of his rightful throne; but the views of
the Sikh reached to the Persian frontier as well as to the
shores of the ocean, and he suggested that it would be well
The gates if the slaughter of kine were prohibited throughout AfghaniantSdothe stan, and if the gates of Somnath were restored to their
slaughter original temple. The Shah was not prepared for these conof kine. cessions, and he evaded them by reminding the Maharaja
that his chosen allies, the English, freely took the lives
of cows, and that a prophecy foreboded the downfall
of the Sikh empire on the removal of the gates from
Ghazni.5
1 Capt. Wade to the Resident at Delhi, 25th July 1826.
2 Resident at Delhi to Capt. Wade, 25th July 1827.
3 Government to Resident at Delhi, 12th June 1829.
4 Capt. Wade to Government, 9th Sept. 1831.
5 Capt. Wade to Government, 21st Nov. 1831.-Considering the
ridicule occasioned by the subsequent removal by the English of
these traditional gates, it may gratify the approvers and originators