The History of Bahawalpur: With Notices of the Adjacent Countries of Sindh, Afghanistan, Multan ...

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Preface

TuE Work, of which the following is an abstract, is an abbreviation of the family annals of Nawab Bahawal Khan. It was abridged at Bahawalpur by Peer Ibrahim Khan, the British native agent there, at the request of Captain J. D. Cunningham, an officer of acknowledged merit, and of extensive literary acquirements and information, as well as of political experience, and who is now our political agent at Bhopal. On his appointment to the latter agency in 1846, I became aware that he had some valuable Oriental MSS. in his possession, and asked him to give me some work, in which I might employ my leisure hours usefully to myself and to the public. He most liberally and readily gave me two MSS.; viz. one, the present work, and the other a religious book, written by the famous Molwee Mohammed Ismael, relating to the prevailing abuses and proper reform of the Mohammedan doctrines in India. I am therefore greatly indebted to this officer for the use of these manuscripts ; and my most sincere acknowledgments are due to him. The information

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given in the introductory chapter is the result of my personal inquiries and observations made in 1833, when I accompanied the mission of Sir Claude Martine Wade, who was deputed to Bahawalpur by the British Grovernment to open the navigation of the Sutlej, and returned overland through Dereh Ghazi Khan, Multan, and the extensive Barh, or wilderness, lying between Multan and Pak-Patan, the whole course never having been before traversed by any British officer. I am also indebted for further information to Peer Ibrahim Khan, who has now, among others, become known to the English people by his valuable services in suppressing the disturbances which have lately broken out in that quarter. For the matter contained in the supplementary chapter, and that in the Appendix about Dereh Ghazi Khan, I am indebted to the notes of Major Mackison, now our commissioner for the Cis -Sutlej territory, who also accompanied our mission in 1833, and resided at Bahawalpur as agent on the part of the British Government, which gave him a superior opportunity of acquiring an intimate knowledge of the country and tribes in that quarter. For these notes I have to thank Sir Claude Wade, who, in the full anticipation of Mr. Mackison's concurrence, has given me leave to use them.

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I am also obliged to Professor Wilson for his kindness in correcting the proof sheets during my absence from London, and beg him to accept my sincere thanks for the same.

It will be unjust in me to close this preface without alluding briefly to the undeniable proofs which the ruling family of Bahawalpur have incessantly given of their fidelity and good-will towards the British Government. The Bahawalpur chief has always been one of the most faithful allies of that Government in India. The hospitable conduct of the ancestor of the present chief towards the mission of the Hon. Mr. Elphinstone in 1809 to Cabul is well known, and recorded by that gentleman himself. The good offices of the present chief on the occasion of the opening of the navigation of the Sutlej were conspicuous, when compared with the opposition of other parties ; and the beneficial results to which they have since frequently led; and his co-operation in opening the land-route between Delhi and the Bahawalpur territory has been similarly advantageous* in encouraging the transit of trade through a sandy desert. The assistance rendered by him to the army of the Indus during its passage in 1838-39, is equally notorious and

* A corps of the Bundelcund contingent, amounting to 2000 men, on its way to Sindh, crossed by this route in 1843.

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creditable. Without Bahawal Khan's active co-operation, in collecting supplies, and furnishing carriage, both by land and water, the British army would have been exposed to great trouble and inconvenience in passing the Bahawalpur territory. He also persevered in the same course during the wars in Sindh and the Punjab ; and his recent achievements in coming forward to check the designs of Moolraj are at present the subjects of general admiration. It is owing to these ties of faithful attachment, as well as to the political position of the Bahawalpur territory, of which yet very little seems to be known, that I have been induced to present this work to the English public. I sincerely hope that a perusal of the political memoir of such a faithful ally will have some interest, not only for those directly connected with India, but to English readers generally.

For myself, I beg that indulgence of the reader to the imperfection of style which a foreign writer may justly claim.

November, 1848.