Note 4 — Chapter I

On the 27th of November he wrote to Lord Auckland from Mynpoorie: “If it be decided that we are to support Shah Soojah under all circumstances and difficulties, I must entreat your Lordship’s early attention to the means of effecting this object, which may be a more arduous undertaking than the occupation of the country in 1839.” And again, in the same letter: “There is a dark, perhaps a random hint, in one of these letters that the rebellion is instigated by the royal family at Caubul. If so, I would advise the early abandonment of them, their country, and their cause.” On the 28th he again wrote: “I really would not advise our forcing either him or ourselves upon a nation so distant, and in all respects so dissimilar both to our Sepoys and ourselves, at an expense so decidedly ruinous.” And on the 30th, in still more emphatic language, he said: “My opinion regarding a renewal of our efforts to support Shah Soojah on his throne, and to establish a permanent influence in Afghanistan, is without change or modification. That we have no base of operations has been always clear; but now, were we to march a reinforcement on the best horses, we could not be sure of carrying the Khybur Pass, and if snow has fallen, the road to Caubul would still be closed.”—[MS. Correspondence of Sir J. Nicolls.]