ruler who dreaded the power of the British arms, and knew that his best way to conquest was one that would not interfere with the Europeans. In 1838 he began negotiations for a closer alliance with the British, but died before they were concluded. His death was followed by a weak and distracted rule which bordered upon anarchy; the demand of the Sikhs to be led against the English became steadily more and more fierce, and at length led to open warfare.
The Sikhs in 1845 invaded British territory, and thus brought on what is known in history as the first Sikh war. They crossed the Sutlej, which had been established by treaty as the boundary, and on the 14th of December attacked the British at Ferozepore. The place contained seven thousand five hundred men, and the Sikh army numbered nearly sixty thousand. Had the Sikhs made an immediate attack, Ferozepore must have fallen, but they contented themselves with intrenching within a safe distance of the fort and detaching twenty thousand men to meet the British column that was advancing to reinforce the garrison of Ferozepore. It was well for the British that Runjeet Singh was in his grave and not commanding the invading army.
The column of twenty thousand Sikhs was encountered and defeated by fourteen thousand British troops at Moodkee. The Sikhs lost heavily in men, and among the spoils of battle were seventeen guns which they were forced to abandon. The British army remained in camp for two days, until joined by reinforcements from the south, and then advanced upon the Sikh camp, having previously arranged for the division in Ferozepore to join at a point opposite the Sikh camp. The battle that followed was favorable to the British, but it was desperately contested by the Sikhs, and for a long time the result was doubtful. The Sikh army retreated and recrossed the
