n Sawan Mal's son, Mulraj, mismanaged Multan and was
ordered to resign. In April, 1848, two English officers sent to instal
his Sikh successor were murdered. Herbert Edwardes, with the help of
Muhammadan tribesmen and Bahawalpur troops, shut up Mulraj in Multan,
but the fort was too strong for the first British regular force, which
arrived in August, and it did not fall till January, 1849. During that
winter a formidable Sikh revolt against English domination broke out.
Its leader was _Sardar_ Chatar Singh, Governor of Hazara. The troops
sent by the _Darbar_ to Multan under Chatar Singh's son, Sher Singh,
marched northwards in September to join their co-religionists.

On the 13th of January, 1849, Lord Gough fought a very hardly contested
battle at Chilianwala. If this was but a doubtful victory, that won six
weeks later at Gujrat was decisive. On 12th March, 1849, the soldiers of
the _Khalsa_ in proud dejection laid down their weapons at the feet of
the victor, and dispersed to their homes.

[Illustration: Fig. 65. Zamzama Gun[6].]

~Annexation.~--The cause they represented was in no sense a national one.
The Sikhs were a small minority of the population, the bulk of the
people being Muhammadans, to whom the English came as deliverers. On the
30th of March, 1849, the proclamation annexing the Panjab was read at
Lahore.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 6: This gun, known to the readers of _Kim_, stands on the
Lahore Mall. Whoever possesses it is supposed to be ruler of the
Panjab.]

CHAPTER XX

HISTORY (_continued_). THE BRITISH PERIOD, 1849-1913

~Administrative Arrangements in Panjab.~--Lord Dalhousie put the
government of the province under a Board of Administration consisting of
the two Lawrences, Henry and John, and Charles Mansel. The Board was
abolished in 1853 and its powers vested in a Chief Commissioner. A
Revenue or Financial Commissioner and a Judicial Commissioner were his
principal subordinates. John Lawrence, the first and only Chief
Commissioner of the Panjab, became its first Lieutenant-Governor on the
1st of January, 1859. The raising of the Panjab to the full rank of an
Indian province was the fitting reward of the great part which its
people and its officers, with their cool-headed and determined chief,
had played in the suppression of the Mutiny. The overthrow of the
_Khalsa_ left the contending parties with the respect which strong men
feel for each other; the services of the Sikhs in 1857