Outline of the Operations of the British Troops in Scinde and Afghanistan: Betwixt Nov. 1838 and Nov. 1841; with Remarks on the Policy of the War

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Times Office, 1843 - 314 Seiten
Outline of the Operations of the British Troops in Scinde and Affghanistan is a detailed account of British military operations in the First Anglo-Afghan War (1839-42) and of the invasion in 1839 by the British East India Company of the province of Sind (in present-day Pakistan). The author, George Buist (1804-60), was editor of the Bombay Times and the book is heavily drawn from dispatches that appeared in that newspaper and in another Indian publication, the Monthly Times. Buist was born in Scotland and educated at Saint Andrews University and the University of Edinburgh. In addition to his newspaper work, he was an accomplished amateur scientist who collected scientific data in various fields and served as secretary to the Geographical Society of Bombay and the Agri-Horticultural Society of Western India. Buist was highly critical of British policy, both in this book and in the editorial line taken by the Bombay Times. He writes that the Anglo-Afghan War began as a "war of aggression," turned into "struggle for our own defence," and was transformed "finally into a war of vengeance." He opposed the policy of retaliation against the Afghans after the Kabul massacres of 1842 and argued that the war was both ruinously expensive and inimical to British interests. The British objective in starting the war was to drive the ruler of Afghanistan, Dost Mohammad Khan, from power and to replace him with Shah Shuja, who was thought to be more favorable to British interests and less susceptible to Russian pressure or blandishment. About this view Buist writes: "The more the matter is examined, the more difficult it is to discover by what process of self-delusion it was that the projectors or advocates of the Doorannee [Durrani] alliance could for a moment persuade themselves that the restoration and maintenance of the Shah Shoojah [Shujaʻ] on the throne, could conduce to any one of the ends we professed ourselves anxious to attain."

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Seite 77 - We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood, but we will never be content with a master.
Seite 38 - Hindustan the brightness of your countenance, has afforded me extreme gratification ; and the field of my hopes, which had before been chilled by the cold blast of wintry times, has, by the happy tidings of your Lordship's arrival, become the envy of the garden of Paradise.
Seite 104 - enceinte" gave a good flanking fire, whilst the height of the citadel covered the interior from the commanding fire of the hills to the north, rendering it nugatory. In addition...
Seite xvii - Afghauns in a few words ; their vices are revenge, envy, avarice, rapacity, and obstinacy ; on the other hand they are fond of liberty, faithful to their friends, kind to their dependants, hospitable, brave, hardy, frugal, laborious, and prudent ; and they are less disposed than the nations in their neighbourhood to falsehood, intrigue, and deceit.
Seite 104 - In addition to this screen, walls had been built before the gates, the ditch was filled with water and unfordable, and an outwork built on the right bank of the river, so as to command the bed of it.
Seite 38 - Affghans should be a flourishing and united nation ; and that, being at peace with all their neighbours, they should enjoy, by means of a more extended commerce, all the benefits and comforts possessed by other nations, which, through such means, have attained a high and advanced state of prosperity and wealth. My predecessor, aware that nothing was so well calculated to promote this object as the opening of the navigation of the Indus, spared himself no pains in procuring this channel for the flow...
Seite 40 - Here a hundred things are passing of the highest interest. Dost Mahomed Khan has fallen into all our views, and in so doing has either thought for himself or followed my counsel, but for doing the former I give him every credit, and things now stand so that I think we are on the threshold of a negotiation with King Runjeet, the basis of which will be his withdrawal from Peshawur, and a Barukzye receiving it as tributary from Lahore, the chief of Cabul sending his son to ask pardon.
Seite 191 - I agreed, and with Erskine and four native officers, met him about a mile from the fort. I never saw a man in such a fright in my life. Although he had thirty horsemen, armed to the teeth, and there were only six of us, he retreated twice before he would venture near us. He thought, from our coming alone, there must be treachery ; that some men were hidden somewhere. Even, after we had met, he had his horse all ready, close by, for a start. Down we all sat in a circle. A wild scene. His followers...
Seite 12 - Excellency has been compelled, by the refusal of his just demands, and by a systematic course of disrespect adopted towards him by the Persian government, to quit the court of the Shah, and to make a public declaration of the cessation of all intercourse between the two governments. The necessity under which Great Britain is placed, of regarding the present advance of the Persian arms into Afghanistan as an act of hostility towards herself, has also been officially communicated to the Shah, under...
Seite 12 - Afghanistan, for the purpose of extending Persian influence and authority to the banks of, and even beyond, the Indus ; and that the Court of Persia had not only commenced a course of injury and insult to the officers of Her Majesty's Mission in the Persian territory, but had afforded evidence of...

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