Note 222 — Chapter III

Lieutenant (since Colonel) Mackeson was one of the assistants to the Governor-General’s agent on the north-west frontier. Whilst Burnes was at Caubul he was directed to remain at Peshawur; a place with which his name has since become historically, and now most painfully, associated. Some two months before the arrival of Macnaghten’s Mission, he joined Runjeet Singh’s camp and travelled with the Maharajah through different parts of the Sikh Empire. Runjeet conversed freely with the young officer regarding the progress of Burnes’s negotiations at Caubul, the mission of Vickovich, and other matters connected with the politics of Afghanistan. Rumours had then reached him of the designs of the British Government to invite him to co-operate in measures for the overthrow of the Barukzye Sirdars. He discussed the subject with little reserve; and it was evident that the project had little attraction for him.