y wish and important
affair of his to General Kauffmann, Governor-General of Turkestan, and
the Governor-General will be authorized by the Russian Government to
fulfil the wishes of the Amir.

7. The Russian Government engages that the Afghan merchants who may
trade and sojourn in Russian territory will be safe from wrong, and
that they will be allowed to carry away their profits.

8. The Amir of Afghanistan will have the power to send his servants to
Russia to learn arts and trades, and the Russian officers will treat
them with consideration and respect as men of rank.

9. (Does not remember.)

10. I, Major-General Stolietoff Nicholas, being a trusted Agent of the
Russian Government, have made the above-mentioned Articles between the
Russian Government and the Government of Amir Sher Ali Khan, and have
put my seal to them.

* * * * *

APPENDIX VIII.

(Referred to in Chapter LVIII, Footnote 5.)

_Letter from SIRDAR ABDUR RAHMAN KHAN to LEPEL GRIFFIN, ESQ.,
dated 15th April, 1880._

Whereas at this happy time I have received your kind letter. In
a spirit of justice and friendship you wrote to inquire what I
wished in Afghanistan. My honoured friend, the servants of the
great [British] Government know well that, throughout these twelve
years of exile in the territories of the Emperor of Russia, night
and day I have cherished the hope of revisiting my native land.
When the late Amir Sher Ali Khan died, and there was no one to
rule our tribes, I proposed to return to Afghanistan, but it
was not fated [that I should do so]; then I went to Tashkent.
Consequently, Amir Mahomed Yakub Khan, having come to terms and
made peace with the British Government, was appointed Amir of
Afghanistan; but since, after he had left you, he listened to the
advice of every interested [dishonest] person, and raised fools to
power, until the ignorant men directed the affairs of Afghanistan,
which during the reign of my grandfather, who had eighteen able
sons, was so managed that night was bright like day, Afghanistan
was, in consequence, disgraced before all States, and ruined. Now,
therefore, that you seek to learn my hopes and wishes, they are
these: that as long as your Empire and that of Russia exist, my
countrymen, the tribes of Afghanistan, should live quietly in ease
and peace; that these two States should f