of Parliament in February, Lord
Beaconsfield declared that our objects had been attained in that land
now that the three chief mountain highways between Afghanistan and India
were completely in our power. It remained to find a responsible ruler
with whom a lasting peace could be signed. Many difficulties were in the
way owing to the clannish feuds of the Afghans and the number of
possible claimants for the crown. Two men stood forth as the most likely
rulers, Shere Ali's rebellious son, Yakub Khan, who had lately been
released from his long confinement, and Abdur Rahman, son of Ufzal Khan,
who was still kept by the Russians in Turkestan under some measure of
constraint, doubtless in the hope that he would be a serviceable trump
card in the intricate play of rival interests certain to ensue at Cabul.

About February 20, Yakub sent overtures for peace to the British
Government; and, as the death of his father at that time greatly
strengthened his claim, it was favourably considered at London and
Calcutta. Despite one act at least of flagrant treachery, he was
recognised as Ameer. On May 8 he entered the British camp at Gandarnak,
near Jelalabad; and after negotiations, a treaty was signed there, May
26. It provided for an amnesty, the control of the Ameer's foreign
policy by the British Government, the establishment of a British
Resident at Cabul, the construction of a telegraph line to that city,
the grant of commercial facilities, and the cession to India of the
frontier districts of Kurram, Pishin, and Sibi (the latter two are near
Quetta). The British Government retained control over the Khyber and
Michnee Passes and over the neighbouring tribes (which had never
definitely acknowledged Afghan rule). It further agreed to pay to the
Ameer and his successors a yearly subsidy of six lakhs of rupees (nearly
L50,000)[315].

[Footnote 315: Parl. Papers, Afghanistan, No. 7 (1879), p. 23; Roberts,
_op. cit._ pp. 170-173.]

General Roberts and many others feared that the treaty had been signed
too hastily, and that the Afghans, "an essentially arrogant and
conceited people," needed a severer lesson before they acquiesced in
British suzerainty. But no sense of foreboding depressed Major Sir Louis
Cavagnari, the gallant and able officer who had carried out so much of
the work on the frontier, when he proceeded to take up his abode at
Cabul as British Resident (July 24). The chief danger lay in the Afghan
troops, particularly