o assist the armies, for which he was to receive
an allowance in cash equal to half their pay. The khan frequently
distinguished himself in the subsequent wars of Kabul; and, as a reward for
his services, the king bestowed upon him several districts in perpetual and
entire sovereignty. Having succeeded in quelling a dangerous rebellion
headed by his cousin Behram Khan, this able prince at length died in
extreme old age in the month of June 1795, leaving three sons and five
daughters. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Mahmud Khan, then a boy of
about fourteen years. During the reign of this prince, who has been
described as a very humane and indolent man, the country was distracted by
sanguinary broils; the governors of several provinces and districts
withdrew their allegiance; and the dominions of the khans of Kalat
gradually so diminished that they now comprehend only a small portion of
the provinces formerly subject to Nasir Khan.

In 1839, when the British army advanced through the Bolan Pass towards
Afghanistan, the conduct of Mehrab Khan, the ruler of Baluchistan, was
considered so treacherous and dangerous as to require "the exaction of
retribution from that chieftain," and "the execution of such arrangements
as would establish future security in that quarter." General Willshire was
accordingly detached from the army of the Indus with 1050 men to assault
Kalat. A gate was knocked in by the field-pieces, and the town and citadel
were stormed in a few minutes. Above 400 Baluches were slain, among them
Mehrab Khan himself; and 2000 prisoners were taken. Subsequent inquiries
have, however, proved that the treachery towards the British was not [v.03
p.0295] on the part of Mehrab Khan, but on that of his vizier, Mahommed
Hussein, and certain chiefs with whom he was in league, and at whose
instigation the British convoys were plundered in their passage through
Kach Gandava and in the Bolan Pass. The treacherous vizier, however, made
our too credulous political officers believe that Mehrab Khan was to blame;
his object being to bring his master to ruin and to obtain for himself all
power in the state, knowing that Mehrab's successor was only a child. How
far he succeeded in his object history has shown. In the following year
Kalat changed hands, the governor established by the British, together with
a feeble garrison, being overpowered. At the close of the same year it was
reoccupied by the British under General Nott. In