to his advantage: of this latter family
Hajee Jamel was then the chief. Ahmed knew how to conciliate the
independent spirit of his Afghan subjects, and by making frequent
incursions on his neighbours, kept alive that spirit of enterprise which
was congenial to their feelings; but from the time of his death the
royal authority began to decline, as Timour, his son and successor, had
neither the sense nor enterprise necessary to uphold it. Affairs became
still worse under the sons of Timour. Shah Zumaun was of a cruel
disposition, and wanted the education necessary to the situation he was
called upon to fill; his brothers, Mahmood and Shah Shooja, were not
better disposed; and towards the Barukzye family, who had been so
instrumental in placing their grandfather, Ahmed, on the throne, they
conducted themselves not only most imprudently, but with dreadful
cruelty.

Shah Zumaun was succeeded by Shah Shooja, of whom, although the chief
person in the present drama, little more need be said of this part of
his history than that, ignorant of the mode of governing such
independent tribes as the Afghans, his power was never great, and, after
the fall of his vizier, and the murder of his comrade, Meer Waeez, it
gradually declined, until he lost his throne at Neemla, in 1809. He had
taken the field with a well-appointed army of 15,000 men; but was
attacked by Futteh Khan, an experienced general, at the head of 2000
men, before the royal army was formed for battle; Akram Khan, his
vizier, was slain, and he fled to the Kyber country, leaving the greater
part of his treasure in the hands of his conquerors. Shah Shooja had
failed to conciliate the Barukzye family; Futteh Khan, their chief, had
therefore espoused the cause of the king's brother, Mahmood, and having
driven Shah Shooja from his throne, he placed Mahmood upon it, and
accepted for himself the situation of vizier. Under his vigorous
administration, the whole of the Afghan country, with the exception of
Cashmere, submitted to the dominion of the new sovereign. The Shah of
Persia, anxious to possess himself of Herat, sent an army against it,
but was defeated in his object, and Herat was preserved to Mahmood by
the successful exertions of Futteh Khan. No sooner, however, was Mahmood
thus firmly established in his dominions, than his son Kamran became
jealous of the man who had raised him to the situation, and had secured
to him the kingdom; he therefore determined to effect the