is blood-stained with
treachery; each acre of ground the scene of a murder. In Barwa itself,
Umra Khan slew his brother, not in hot anger or open war, but coldly and
deliberately from behind. Thus he obtained power, and the moralist
might observe with a shudder, that but for the "Forward Policy" he would
probably be in full enjoyment to-day. This Umra Khan was a man of much
talent, a man intellectually a head and shoulders above his countrymen.
He was a great man, which on the frontier means that he was a great
murderer, and might have accomplished much with the quick-firing guns
he was negotiating for, and the troops he was drilling "on the European
model." The career of this Afghan Napoleon was cut short, however, by
the intervention of Providence in the guise or disguise of the Indian
Government. He might have been made use of. People who know the frontier
well, say that a strong man who has felt the grip of the British power
is the best tool to work with, and that if Umra Khan, humbled and
overawed, had been reinstated, he might have done much to maintain law
and order. As long as they fight, these Afghans do not mind much on
which side they fight. There are worse men and worse allies helping
us to-day. The unpractical may wonder why we, a people who fill some
considerable place in the world, should mix in the petty intrigues of
these border chieftains, or soil our hands by using such tools at all.
Is it fitting that Great Britain should play off one brutal khan against
his neighbours, or balance one barbarous tribe against another? It is
as much below our Imperial dignity, as it would be for a millionaire to
count the lumps in the sugar-basin. If it be necessary for the safety of
our possessions that these territories should be occupied, it would
be more agreeable to our self-respect that we should take them with a
strong hand. It would be more dignified, but nothing costs more to keep
up than dignity, and it is perhaps because we have always been guided
by sound commercial principles in this respect that we have attained our
present proud position.

After looking round the fortress and admiring the skill and knowledge
with which it was built, we were conducted by the khan to the shade of
some beautiful chenar trees, which grew near a little spring not far
from the walls of the fort. Here were a number of charpoys, or native
bedsteads, very comfortable, but usually full of bugs, and on these we
sat.

Remembering