ference in Afghanistan, the usurper Dost Muhammad Bárakzái
was firmly established at Kábul. His great ambition was to
recover Pesháwar from the Sikhs. When, therefore, Captain
Alexander Burnes arrived on a mission from Lord Auckland,
with the ostensible object of opening trade, the Dost was willing
to promise everything, if only he could get Pesháwar. But
Lord Auckland had another and more important object in view.
At this time the Russians were advancing rapidly in Central
Asia; and a Persian army, not without Russian support, was
besieging Herát, the traditional bulwark of Afghanistan on the
east. A Russian envoy was at Kábul at the same time as
Burnes. The latter was unable to satisfy the demands of Dost
Muhammad in the matter of Pesháwar, and returned to India
unsuccessful. Lord Auckland forthwith resolved upon the
hazardous plan of placing a more subservient ruler upon the
throne of Kábul. Sháh Shujá, one of the two royal Afghán
exiles at Ludhiána, was selected for the purpose. At this time
both the Punjab and Sind were independent kingdoms; and
both lay between British India and Afghánistán. Sind was the
less powerful of the two, and accordingly a British army
escorting Sháh Shujá made its way through Sind into Southern
Afghánistán by way of the Bolan Pass. Kandahár surrendered,
Ghazni was taken by storm, Dost Muhammad fled across the
Hindu Kush, and Sháh Shujá was triumphantly led into the
Bala Hissár at Kabul in August 1839. After one more brave
struggle, Dost Muhammad surrendered, and was sent to Calcutta
as a State prisoner. The Governor-General, Baron Auckland,
was created Earl of Auckland in 1839.
British Retreat from Afghánistán, 1841-1842.—But although we could enthrone Sháh Shujá, we could not win for him the hearts of the Afghans. To that nation he seemed a degenerate exile thrust back upon them by foreign arms. During two years Afghánistán remained in the military occupation of the British. The catastrophe occurred in November 1841, when our Political Agent, Sir Alexander Burnes, was assassinated in the city of Kábul. The troops in the cantonments were under the command of General Elphinstone (not to be confounded with the able civilian and historian, the Hon.
