PIQNE OF °PROG UC-NRLF 6&T* $B 2TM 551 AV" em m:m A. L, P. TUCKER Gil FT OF «• • • « ••• • •• SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN FROM A PORTRAIT BY THE HON. JOHN COLLIER Frontispiece PIONEERS OF PROGRESS EMPIRE BUILDERS edited by A. P. NEWTON, M.A., D.Litt., B.Sc, and W. BASIL WORSFOLD, M.A. SIR ROBERT G. SANDEMAN K.C.S.I. PEACEFUL CONQUEROR OF BALUCHISTAN BY A. L. P. TUCKER, CLE. FORMERLY OF THE POLITICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT OF INDIA WITH A PORTRAIT AND MAP LONDON: SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1921 ^ irtf itf* CONTENTS. PAGE Introductory 5 CHAP. I. Early Years . 8 II. The Indian Frontier 12 III. Among the Tribesmen 21 IV. The First Mission to Kalat 27 V. Kalat Again 34 VI. Quetta in the Afghan War 43 VII. The Further Settlement of Baluchistan ... 51 VIII. Last Days 58 449869 Hi INTRODUCTORY. Sir Robert Sandeman was one of many of our countrymen who have given their lives to the service of our Empire on the Indian frontier. He spent his life there, from early manhood until his death on January 29, 1 892, in his fifty-seventh year. " He died, as he lived, in the discharge of his duty" — says the inscription on the memorial tablet in our church at Quetta — " Fervent in spirit and serving the Lord." The truth of these few simple words is not to be challenged. It is manifest to all who knew and remember him, as well as to those who know the wild country which he served so well. There his memory is yet green and his name still casts a spell. It was in Baluchistan, the southern portion of our Indian frontier, that his life's work was done. That wide region of mountain and desert he found in a state of mis- rule and misery, at times of open civil war. At his death he left behind him a well-ordered country where British influence was supreme and — more than that — welcome. His was no military conquest. No great victories in the field marked his career. Force was not his weapon, al- though, on proper occasion, few could be more forceful or swift to act than he. In a country where bravery is the first of native virtues, his courage was often tried and his fearlessness well known. But over and above these qualities, which in our frontier service have been common and indeed are expected, there was in him much more. His leading motive, so strong that it was almost a passion, (5) 6 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN was love for his fellow-creatures, especially the half- civilised peoples among whom his life was spent. It was a delight to him to adjust their fierce quarrels, and re- dress the grievances among them which caused so much misery and bloodshed. This, coupled with a strong sense of duty and inexhaustible tenacity and patience, made him the great man that he was. For Sandeman was great undoubtedly, although he himself did not know it. "I might have been a great man," he once remarked in his home circle, "but for the telegraph." Official distinction was probably in his mind when he spoke : of this no great share fell to him. His greatness lies rather in the work which he actually did, the value of which is now clearer than it was in his lifetime. He came to that wild country as a messenger of peace and goodwill, much opposed, much misunderstood, and greatly daring. Peace and goodwill were the foundations that he built upon : a structure so founded was bound to last. In his lifetime his influence and hold upon the country stood firm in the Afghan War of 1878-80 under the most exacting strain. After his death the widespread frontier troubles of 1 897 did not affect Baluchistan. And now, in the past few years, when the strain on our Indian frontier has been greater and more protracted than ever before, Baluchistan has proved a source of strength and security. It has most amply fulfilled its founder's hopes and plans. Sandeman's life ] has already been written by his con- temporary, Dr. T. H. Thornton, who was Secretary to the Governments in India under which Sir Robert worked. This book is of great value and gives a full and sympathetic description of Sir Robert and his work. Much more, however, has been made public during the twenty-five years which have passed since the "Life" appeared ; and his story will bear telling again in the 1 Thornton's " Life of Sir Robert Sandeman ". Murray, 1895. INTRODUCTORY 7 briefer fashion of this series of Empire Builders, among whom he merits a high and honoured place. The writer can only claim that, holding for upwards of two years (1905-7) the same office, he was able to learn on the spot how marvellous was the hold on the chiefs and peoples of Baluchistan which Robert Sandeman had established, and which his memory and system maintained. CHAPTER I. EARLY YEARS. Robert Groves Sandeman was born at Perth on February 25, 1835. He came of a good old Scottish stock, which gave to Perth in the seventeenth and eight- eenth centuries several distinguished citizens. One of the best known was Robert Sandeman, who founded the " Sandemanian " Church of simple Christian people, to which the great scientist Faraday belonged. This Robert died in America in 1771. His "patience, boldness, and love of conciliation " passed in a marked degree to his namesake and kinsman a century later. His fourth brother, Thomas, was Treasurer and Magistrate of Perth. Thomas' grandson, Robert Turnbull Sandeman, entered the military service of the East India Company in 1824. His regiment was the 33rd Bengal Infantry which he commanded throughout the first Sikh War. He retired in 1862 with the rank of Brigadier-General. He married a Miss Barclay, and Robert, the subject of this memoir, was their son. Robert was one of a family of ten. When he was ten months old his parents returned to India, leaving him and his elder brother in the care of his aunts at Perth. For these four ladies, who were unmarried, Robert had and retained a lifelong affection. Their love he never forgot : the strong religious beliefs, which they imparted, he carried with him all his life. He did not see his father again until many years later, when he arrived in India, a young military Cadet, as his father had been (8) EARLY YEARS 9 before him. Then father and son at once became fast friends and companions : the man and the boy loved each other. Robert was sent to school at the Perth Academy, and, later, to St. Andrews University. At neither did he distinguish himself. He was not studious then or afterwards. Nor was he, when a boy, great at athletics. He was a strong fellow, mischievous and bold enough, ready to fight on occasion, tender-hearted to animals, and very sensitive and affectionate. When a home letter, which he expected, did not come, he walked thirty miles to Perth to find out the reason. Dr. Miller, his old schoolmaster, thus summed him up before he sailed for India : — " Robert Sandeman ! Ye did little work at school, but I wish ye well. And I would not like to be the Saracen of Bagdad or the Tartar of Samarkand that comes under the blow of your sabre." Robert went to India in 1856. Although for a brief while he had tried life in a business office, he was resolved to be a soldier. So he sailed as soon as his commission was granted, bearing with him a pleasant face and manner, a stout frame and heart, little learning, and no interest. In India he soon joined his father's regiment. Early in 1857 rumours were afloat in India of danger and coming trouble. The mysterious unleavened cakes were being passed from village to village. Mutiny by the native army was in the air. By May the cloud had burst in the outbreaks at Meerut and Delhi, and the storm was gathering strength on all sides. The disarming of all doubtful or disaffected regiments was ordered. Among them was the 33 rd. Colonel Sandeman was one of many British officers in the Indian Army who absolutely believed in their men. He and his officers, says Lord Roberts, 1 trusted in them 111 Forty-one Years in India," Lord Roberts, Vol. I., Chap. X. to SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN "to any extent". The disarming was carried out on June 25, at Phillour, immediately after that of the 35th regiment, and on the same parade ground. In both cases the command was obeyed by the sepoys without a word. The order came to Colonel Sandeman and his officers as a bolt from the blue. They had been told nothing. The Colonel, on hearing it, exclaimed — " What ! Disarm my regiment ! I will answer with my life for the loyalty of every man." When Roberts repeated the order he burst into tears. In later life Sir Robert told Lord Roberts how terribly his father had felt the disgrace of his old corps. Lord Roberts makes it clear that there was great feel- ing. The officers of the 33rd, he says, did not take things so quietly as those of the 35 th had done. The scene must have been distressing to all, and especially to father and son. The latter acted admirably, with perception and discretion beyond his years. No doubt he softened the blow to his shocked and overstrung father. He did not share his father's sublime confidence in the sepoys. For some time past he had followed him through the lines, carrying a loaded pistol, ready to shoot the first man who threatened the Colonel's life. He had also escorted his two sisters to a place of greater safety, all three disguised as natives. It is pleasant to record that, after the disarming, the regiment remained faithful. The arms were publicly restored when the crisis was over. After the disarmament the younger Sandeman was transferred to another corps. He volunteered for active service before Delhi. After its fall he took part in various operations. He was in the storming of Dilk- husha and the final capture of Lucknow. He was twice severely wounded, and gained a high reputation for pluck and zeal. Report has it that he was sent to carry despatches to Sir John Lawrence, over a dangerous tract infested by mutineers, and that he performed this duty so quickly and well that Sir John offered him civil employ- EARLY YEARS n merit under the Panjab Government It is probable that Sir John, who knew most men and things in his Province, took no leap in the dark when he made the offer. He and Colonel Sandeman were old friends. He knew the Phillour story and the young man's fighting record as well. Robert was still anxious to be a soldier : however he accepted the offer. In May, 1859, therefore, his strictly military career ended and he entered civil employ. After two and a half years' training in administration he was posted to the Panjab frontier. He brought to his new work an experience of men and things which must have been unusual in so young an officer, even in those stirring times. CHAPTER II. THE INDIAN FRONTIER. By the "frontier of India" is meant the north-west frontier : for the north-eastern frontier is impassable. With the far east borders, which touch China and Siam, this memoir is not concerned. The south-east and south- western borders of the great Dependency are, of course, the seas, by which we entered India and by which we hold it. The north-west frontier is India's land frontier. Our dealings with it commenced little more than a century ago, and form in our Indian history a chapter of their own. The frontier is some twelve hundred miles long, and is fenced by mountain barriers which stretch from the Himalayas to the coast of the Arabian sea. The river Indus may be conveniently taken as its base line, from the point where the stream bends southward in the great mountain ranges, to the sea which it reaches below our harbour at Karachi, the port and capital of Sind. But the river is by no means the frontier itself: that lies considerably to the west of it. The distinguishing- feature of the frontier is that its mountain walls are pierced by passes, by which the plains of India have been entered and overrun from Central Asia from time im- memorial. These passes are very few. The physical features of the frontier are stupendous. Its distances are immense. The mountains from which the river Indus flows are the highest in the world ; and the river itself is one of the greatest known to geographers. In the Indus (12) THE INDIAN FRONTIER 13 valley and the foot-hills beyond it the heat of summer is terrible. In winter the cold is bitter everywhere, and above the lower levels it becomes piercing. So scorching is the heat of the desert which lies at the foot of the Bolan pass, that the native proverb says of the village there, " Having Dadar, why did the Almighty create a hell ? " The aspect of the mountains round the pass is so forbidding that Sir Charles Napier was moved to say, that this must be the place where, after the creation of the world, the spare rubbish was shot down. Of the passes the Bolan and the Khyber are the principal. The first leads from the Sind desert to Quetta, whence lies the road to Kandahar, the chief city of South Afghanistan. The Khyber leads from our border city of Peshawar to the Afghan border and the road to the Afghan capital, Kabul. There are other passes, but they are less im- portant. These passes, or their ancient and mediaeval equivalents, have witnessed the passage into India of many invading hosts and hordes. Alexander the Great's legions (327-5 B.C.) came through them ; as did armies led by Grseco- Bactrian kings who ruled in Central Asia after his time. One of these, 1 Menander (153 B.C.) was the last general of European extraction to lead an army into India by land. Great Hindu emperors controlled the frontier country in and about the Christian era. Buddhist re- mains still attest their ancient supremacy. In the long centuries that follow, Hun, Tartar, Afghan, Moghul, and Persian hosts have swept down the passes and plundered India below. The wasting of Baluchistan by the great Timur (A.D. 1399) is still remembered there with shudder- ing and dread. The last two of the invaders were Nadir Shah, the Persian conqueror who sacked Delhi (A.D. 1739); and Ahmed Shah Abdali, the Afghan King of Kabul, who repeated the exploit (A.D. 1756). These 1 " Early History of India," V. A. Smith, Chap. VIII. Oxford, 1904. 14 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN two invasions took place when the empire of the Great Moghul at Delhi had fallen into decay. The peoples that dwell in the frontier countries match well with its stern conditions. They are hardy, brave, fierce, and lawless. They have long been Mohammedans ; though the precise dates when they embraced Islam are not known. The Arabs from Mesopotamia entered Baluchistan in the eighth century, passing through the coastal country between Persia and the Indus. They conquered the lower and middle Indus valleys, and held them for two centuries, when their rule ended. The date of the conversion in this region has been placed in this period. The inhabitants of the frontier country at the present day are composed, broadly, of two races. The tribes on the northern portion, from the Himalayas to the middle Indus valley, are Pathan. From there to the sea the tribes are Baluch, or akin to Baluch. Between the two races there is a considerable difference. The Pathans (the name is supposed to mean " hill-men ") x include the Afghans, by whom we generally mean the inhabitants of Afghanistan proper. There are numerous Pathan tribes and clans outside Afghanistan. The Afghans call themselves children of Israel, although it is not clear that they claim Jewish descent. 2 The Baluch, who have given their name to Baluchistan, by tradition came from the region of Aleppo, whence they migrated, through Mesopotamia and Southern Persia, to Baluchistan. They are said to have first settled in the coastal tract which is called Mekran, and borders with Persia. This is the country where Alexander's army suffered cruelly from thirst on its way back to Persia. The Baluch then moved north-eastwards in the direc- tion of the Indus valley, in which the towns of Dera Ghazi Khan and Dera Ismail Khan bear the names of 1 Thornton's "Sandeman," Chap. II. 9 Ibid. t Chap. II. ; also " The Life of Amir Abdur Rahman," Vol. II., Chap. VII. ^Murray, 1900. THE INDIAN FRONTIER 15 Baluch chiefs, who pitched their encampments (de>as) there. The Baluch migration was followed by that of the Brahuis ! (Brohis), who occupied the tracts which the Baluch had vacated, and fixed their stronghold at Kalat in the uplands. The date of neither migration is known. The Brahuis also came, by their tradition, from Aleppo. Both Baluch and Brahuis are divided into numerous tribes and clans. The Murrees and the Boogtis are, perhaps, the chief Baluch tribes. The Brahui tribes form a loose confederacy, of which the Khan of Kalat is the head. They are divided into two main groups — the highlanders (Sarawans), who inhabit the uplands; and the lowlanders (Jhalawans), who live in the country below. The Brahuis greatly outnumber the Baluch. The Baluch, though fierce and warlike, are not fanatical or bigoted. They are brave, with a bold and manly bearing and frank manners ; good horsemen, and of good physique. Their long oiled curls, which hang down to their shoulders, give them a most striking appearance ; and a Baluch chief in gala dress is a fine figure of a man. They are profuse in hospitality and expect to receive it in equal measure. The Brahuis are not unlike them, but are less striking and martial. The Baluch appear to be the older and purer race. They do not give their daughters in marriage to the Brahuis, but the latter will marry daughters into a Baluch family, without scruple. 2 Some of the Brahui clans are called Baluch : others seem to have absorbed Hindu and other races whom they found in the country. The Baluch recognise and obey the leader of the tribe, or "Tumandar," as he is called — " the leader of ten thousand ". With the Pathan tribes this is, generally, not the case. Here the tribesmen are democratic, obey no authority for long, and are, 1 Colonel Webb Ware, "Journal, Central Asian Society," Vol. VI., 1919. 2 •* The Brahui Language," Bray, Part I., 1919, Introduction, CzU cutta, 1909. 16 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN moreover, fanatical, vindictive, and treacherous. The Pathan tribes in Baluchistan live in the country north- east of Quetta, which includes Pishin, and the Zhob valley and its outskirts. The whole tribal country has been called " Yaghistan," or the " country of the lawless/' by all outside authorities that have had to deal with it, Persian and Afghan as well as ourselves. The love of freedom is strong in all the border tribes, although Baluchistan has never been independent for long. This passion for independence would merit respect, were it not for the fierce and cruel rapacity which has long made and still makes the tribesmen a terror to their peaceful neighbours in the plains. In the days of the Moghul Empire at Delhi, which Babar founded in 1526, the frontier country was con- trolled by Viceroys or Governors at Kabul and Kandahar. This last province was wrested from the Moghul by Persia. On the break-up of the Persian Empire, after Nadir Shah's death in 1 747, a powerful Afghan kingdom was established by Ahmed Shah Abdali. This covered much of the frontier region and the Panjab, while the Afghans further claimed suzerainty over the Amirs of Sind. Ahmed Shah died in 1773. His successor was ousted from the Panjab by the powerful and warlike Hindu government established by the Sikhs at Lahore, which developed into the Sikh kingdom ruled by the famous Maharaja Ranjit Singh. By this ruler the Afghans were driven beyond the passes, and the Sikh border was carried to the foot of the network of mountains that forms the home of the Pathan tribes. In the southern portion of the frontier Afghan rule was better preserved. But Baluchistan contained a ruler of its own in the Khan of Kalat, the head of the Brahui confederacy. Nasir Khan I. (1755-95) was the great Khan of Kalat, and is still the hero of Baluch legend and lay. He con- trived to avoid absorption, proved a useful ally both to THE INDIAN FRONTIER i; the Persian and the Afghan, and added much to his own dominions and power. Our dealings with the frontier countries commenced in 1809. We were then engaged in our great struggle with France, and Napoleon had planned to attack our Indian possessions, in concert with Persia. The value of a friendly alliance with Afghanistan was realised, and a treaty was concluded with Shah Shuja, the Afghan King. Shah Shuja was soon afterwards driven from his country and replaced by a ruler of the Barakzai dynasty ; but the danger from France had ceased in 18 15. By that time British ascendancy was established in India, and we controlled the whole country, except the two frontier kingdoms of the Panjab and Sind. With Afghanistan and Baluchistan we had little to do. By 1837 a new danger to India had arisen — the ad- vance of Russia in Central Asia. This menace, which still exists, has been ever since a dominant factor in the frontier policy of the Government of India. The exiled Afghan ruler, Shah Shuja, had sought refuge in India, and had more than once endeavoured to regain his throne. Afghanistan was now of prime importance to India, as an outwork against the aggression of a great foreign power ; and Baluchistan, which marches with south Afghanistan and Persia, was hardly less so. We engaged to replace Shah Shuja on the throne in Kabul, and he guaranteed to us in return a friendly alliance. The project failed disastrously. British armies were sent up the Indus, with a contingent under Shah Shuja. They passed up the Bolan and through Quetta and Kandahar to Kabul in 1838. There the exiled ruler was reinstated and maintained for two years. In 1 84 1 there was a general rising against both him and us. Our envoys at Kabul were murdered ; and our Kabul garrison, compelled to retreat to India by the nearest road, was massacred on the way. Avenging armies were sent from Kandahar and India to Kabul. They withdrew in 1842, 2 iS SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN when Afghanistan regained, in Amir Dost Mahomed, a ruler of its own choosing. A minor incident in this unhappy story was the storm- ing of Kalat in 1839. The Khan had engaged to sup- port us. He was — unjustly, as it proved — suspected of treachery. Kalat was stormed by our troops and Khan Mehrab died fighting in defence of his fort and palace. His death was followed by disorder, in which our agent at Kalat was barbarously murdered. Mehrab Khan's son was installed as his successor, partly in tardy justice to his father's memory, partly as the best means of paci- fying the country ; and a treaty was concluded with him in 1 841, which was negotiated by Major, afterwards Sir James, Outram. Sandeman used to tell afterwards that this son, Khudadad, the young Khan of his day, could never speak of his father's death without marked agita- tion and grief. During these hostilities our troops and transport suffered heavily all along the immense line of communi- cations from the tribesmen, who lost no opportunity of plundering and murdering the unarmed and unwary. On the Baluchistan side the Murree tribe were the most mischievous. In 1840 a force was sent to their country to punish them. One detachment was surrounded and besieged at Kahan, the chief Murree village. It was withdrawn after a memorable defence, but not until a relieving column had been beaten back by the tribesmen, who captured three guns and almost destroyed it. Two of these guns were recovered in 1859. The third, which could not then be found, was still in Kahan twelve years ago. In 1843 we conquered the Amirs of Sind and annexed that country. We were then, for the first time, brought up against the tribal country, border to border. Our border, or rather the only dangerous part of it, was covered by the Sind desert, which stretches from the Indus to the foot of the hill countrv and the mouth of THE INDIAN FRONTIER i£ the Bolan pass. This desert, which is the hottest part of a burning country, is about 200 miles long and 1 50 across. In 1845 an d again in 1848 we were at war with the Sikhs : for on the death of Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1839 his kingdom had lapsed into anarchy. The Sikh armies were defeated after a very severe struggle, and the Panjab became a British province. We were then again brought, border to border, with the tribal country over a long stretch of 800 miles. And here, all along, the tribes are Pathan, except at the southern extremity where the Panjab and Sind meet, and the Baluch tribal country begins. One of the first tasks of our two border administra- tions was the protection of the Indian plains. Sir Charles Napier, conqueror and governor of Sind, was compelled by continued raids to march into the Murree and Boogtee tribal country in 1845. He proclaimed the tribesmen to be outlaws, and offered a reward for every one of them who was killed or captured within his borders. He tried to guaru his border by military posts and forts ; but he had little success until, in 1847, he formed a frontier force, and gave its command to Captain, afterwards General, John Jacob. Jacob soon brought the raiders under control. Disdaining the use of forts or defensive posts he used his troopers to wage swift and unceasing war against cattle-lifters and all who harried the plains. The desert and its heat were no obstacle to his in- domitable energy and courage. In 1847 a force of marauders, seven hundred strong, was cut off by a detachment of the Sind Horse under Lieut. Merewether. The band was destroyed, only two men escaping death or capture. This, with other successes, effectually stopped the evil. Nor did Jacob confine himself to watch and ward. He dug canals, made roads, and founded in the desert the thriving town of Jacobabad which is called after him. He also conducted our rela- tions with the Khan of Kalat, with whom he had much 20 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN influence, and arranged with him the treaty of 1854. Jacob clearly saw the value of Quetta ; and in 1855 he was as anxious that our troops should be there, as Sandeman was many years later. Jacob left the frontier in 1855 : he returned there to die in 1858 at Jacobabad, where he is buried. In the Mutiny he would have been given a high military command, had he not been struck down suddenly by fever. His early death was a heavy loss to the Government which he had served so ardu- ously. The Khan of Kalat died shortly before him, and was succeeded by his half-brother, Khudadad Khan, then a boy. After Jacob's death Kalat affairs fell into disorder. The Baluch, afraid of plundering Sind, raided the Khan's country and made the Bolan pass impassable, save by large caravans. So widespread and destructive were the Murree raids that the Khan, assisted by our Resident, overran their country in 1859. For the moment the tribes were repressed, but not for long. Fierce disputes broke out between the Khan and his chiefs. He was deposed in 1863, and restored in 1864. Anarchy con- tinued. The Khan employed a force of mercenaries, mostly Pathans. They are described as scoundrels of all sorts and a scourge to the country. He fought with his chiefs with varying success, capturing some and then pardoning them ; defied and resisted by others. The Bolan pass remained quite unsafe, and other ways were closed altogether. This was the general condition of Baluchistan in 1866. CHAPTER III. AMONG THE TRIBESMEN. Robert Sandeman's service on the frontier began at the close of 1861. He was first sent north and did good work of a minor kind in more than one district. In 1863 he did duty with one of the military expeditions sent against tribes on the Peshawar border. He was in charge of communications, scoured the country with mounted levies, collected intelligence, and was happy. He is said to have put a telegram, postponing the attack on a fort, in his pocket, and kept it there until the place had been carried. Several similar stories cling to his memory : he did not like telegrams. He was then en- gaged to be married to his cousin, Miss Allen.' He was seen under dropping matchlock fire reading a letter from her, laying it down to issue an order and then taking it up again. The marriage took place in 1 864 ; and after two more years' service in this part of the border he was promoted to the charge of the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, in the mid-Indus valley, where the borders of the Panjab and of Sind meet and the Baluch tribal country begins. He arrived there in 1866. Along this frontier raiding by the tribesmen was still, as it always had been, the order of the day. It was met by stern reprisals. Before the Panjab was annexed, the Sikh governor at Peshawar, the Italian general, Avitabile, used to have captured raiders flung to the ground from a high tower in the city. In 1853 an officer employed on our frontier writes : " All outside our border, and many (21) 22 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN within it, were to us thieves and robbers. Our outposts brought in heads. I saw them rolled out on the ground by the troopers." I have mentioned Sir Charles Napier's proclamation of outlawry. His officers were of milder mood and withdrew it. Jacob, riding through the desert, was met by a man carrying a sack, who rolled out two heads of tribesmen and asked what reward should be given to him. " Give him two dozen " was Jacob's answer. The head of a border district in those days was, and still is, a " universal provider" of administration. He controlled the land, the taxes, the magistrates, and the police. He had a voice in the management of roads, canals, hospitals, forests, and schools. He was re- sponsible for the good behaviour of the tribesmen within his border, and dealt with aggressors from beyond it. To guard against raids he had border police and levies, and was supported by military garrisons from which he could call for aid on occasion. But there was on the Panjab border a stringent rule that district officers, with- out special sanction, were never to risk their lives beyond it, or to dream of its extension beyond present limits. This rule, which dates from Sir John Lawrence's day, has often been criticised. But there were excellent reasons for it. Sandeman's district was a strip of the Indus valley about 200 miles long. Away from the river it was a dreary country, intolerably hot in summer. The Baluch lands of the district stretched to its border, where they came close to the hilly tribal country of the Murrees and other tribes over whom Sandeman had no authority. The control of these tribes rested in the Sind frontier officer at Jacobabad, who was subordinate to the Com- missioner in Sind, while Sandeman served under the Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjab. These high authorities, and the services under them, were indepen- dent of each other but both alike subordinate to the AMONG THE TRIBESMEN 23 Government of India. Either could make or mar the career of any of his officers. Sandeman first set to work to gain the respect and confidence of the tribes under his own control. This did not take him long. He was Scotch himself and clannish- ness appealed to him. He liked the men and understood them. He found their chiefs wanting in authority and means ; and he gave them both. The chief Baluch tribe of Dera Ghazi Khan was the Mazaris, so called from the word Mazar which means a tiger in the Baluch tongue. 1 Their chief was then young and poor. Sandeman restored him and other chiefs to their rightful places as '* Tumandars ". Henceforward he had no more faithful and valued adherent than Nawab Sir Imam Baksh Mazari, as the chief afterwards became. Sir Imam Baksh is now dead ; but his son, Nawab Sir Bahram Khan, survives him and well maintains the reputation of his loyal and distinguished father. Nawab Jamal Khan, chief of the Lagharis, was another of the Baluch chiefs who worked with Sandeman from the be- ginning and proved a worthy colleague of the Mazari leader. In another matter Sandeman was fortunate. He found in 1866, in Dera Ghazi Khan, a valued assistant in Mr. Bruce, who worked with him for more than eighteen years. In the early Quetta days Mr. Bruce was Sandeman's right hand ; and he has published a graphic account 2 of the work which he and Sandeman did to- gether. Sandeman found, too, in a very lowly position, a Hindu clerk named Hittu Ram. This extraordinary man was little more than five feet high, spare and thin, and perhaps the last person in the world to be thought capable of dealing with the stalwart tribesmen. But Sandeman saw that there was good stuff in him, tested " The Baluch Race," Dames, Royal Asiatic Society, 1904. a " The Forward Policy and its Results," R. I. Bruce, CLE. Long- mans, 1900. 24 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN him, and soon made him one of his most trusted sub- ordinates. Hittu has left a full record of Baluchistan history, one section of which deals with Sir Robert's work from 1866 until his death. This has been admir- ably translated by General Sir Claud Jacob, himself an old Baluchistan officer ; while Colonel Archer, who long served under Sir Robert, has written the preface. As one reads it one seems to hear the little man's wonder- ful voice dominating, as Colonel Archer tells us it did, the clamour of a tribal assembly, and seeming to " ride the whirlwind and direct the storm ". On this work 1 I shall draw largely, speaking of its author as the " Chronicler " ; since his quaint, simple, and obviously truthful narrative often recalls other chronicles. Indeed the country, and its peoples and their doings, frequently bring to mind Old Testament scenes. Another of Sir Robert's trusted and valued Hindu subordinates was Diwan Ganpat Rai. He, too, was most insignificant in physique, but his authority and ability were not far short of Hittu Ram's. Both these Hindu officers are now dead. Both received and enjoyed well- earned honours. Sandeman's judgment in the choice of the men who worked for him, seldom erred ; it was shown conspicuously in the careers of these two men. When Sandeman had composed the many feuds and quarrels within his own limits, set the chiefs on their legs, and got his own house fairly in the way to order, he turned to his border neighbours. With these he had a long account to settle for raids, murders, and other heinous offences; but his authority was confined to offenders captured within his border. He began by summoning the chiefs concerned to a conference. To this they came ; but they flatly declined to enter into any arrangement for keeping the peace. Sandeman therefore dismissed them, warning one notorious raider that, if he 1 " Sandeman in Baluchistan," by the late R. B. Hittu Ram, C.I.E., Government of India. Calcutta, 1916. AMONG THE TRIBESMEN 25 again crossed the border for plunder, he would not return alive. The ruffian, one Ghulam Husain (Mr. Bruce des- cribes him as the most ill-favoured looking scoundrel in all the Baluch hills) laughed at the warning, and went his way. He soon gathered a force of twelve hundred men, and broke into the plains again. He was not unexpected ; for Sandeman had organised his own chiefs well, and various parties were on the watch. The fire of burning hamlets gave the alarm to one of the military posts. Forty troopers, with a contingent of five hundred tribes- men, galloped to the spot. A fierce fight ensued and the raiders were cut to pieces. The leader, with one hundred and twenty of his followers were killed, and two hundred were made prisoners. Sandeman, riding fast to the scene, was met by a mounted tribesman, much excited, who galloped up to him. Crying " Here is the head of Ghulam Husain," he rolled it out of his mare's nose-bag on to the road. Sandeman gave orders for its decent interment. It was carried away afterwards by relations and buried with the body, which they had taken back to the hills. The fame of this achievement spread far and wide. Sandeman's star was regarded as lucky, and his words of warning were proved to be words of weight. The border respected him. He kept his prisoners and summoned their chiefs to appear before him, if they wanted them back. At first the chiefs feared to obey the sum- mons. Some had gone before the Khan of Kalat and been flung into prison. Others, shortly before, had ap- peared before the Afghan governor at Sibi, and been beheaded. However, they had some trust in Sandeman, and at length they came. They then agreed to abstain from further outrages on his border and were honourably dismissed ; while a few horsemen from each tribe were taken into Government service to be employed as des- patch riders and the like. This new arrangement worked well. Sandeman also introduced among the tribes the 26 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN system of referring their disputes to councils of chiefs and notables, according to the usage of the country. This system, which he had first seen at work among the Pathan tribes, took wonderful hold among the Baluch It is now extended all over their country, and forms one of the most popular and useful features of the adminis- tration. It is called the " Jirga " system, from the Persian word for a "circle/' and is, in practice, a form of trial by jury. So far Sandeman had done very well. Much of his influence with the Baluch tribes was due to his habit of always dealing with them in the Baluch manner and settling disputes in accordance with their own customs. He used the Baluch chiefs whenever he could. Baluch horsemen generally formed his escorts, and offered them- selves eagerly for the duty. They liked his well-looking features, and, in the lays of which they are so fond, the praises of "Sinniman" were sung in many a border village. But in 1868 a heavy blow fell upon him. His wife and children were attacked by diphtheria, which broke out in the cantonment in a very fatal form. His wife and one child died : another, whom he was taking to the hills, died on the journey. Grief-stricken he returned to a desolate house, after a short journey to England to take home the child left to him. The tribes- men saw and felt for his sorrow, and they respected the patience with which he bore it. He flung himself into his work with tenfold vigour. It was then that it became his absorbing passion. He had begun to feel his strength and know that there was work for him to do, and that, under Providence, he could do it. CHAPTER IV. THE FIRST MISSION TO KALA*T. FROM 1869 onwards Sandeman began to range further afield. He was now well established within his own border. He and his officers could travel about without fear of harm in hills that had been " Yaghistan" for centuries; where, says the Chronicler, "even natives could only resort at peril of their lives ". He broke the border rule repeatedly and successfully. These trans- gressions were condoned : it was impossible to resist him. He was allowed to place his summer headquarters in a hill twenty-five miles beyond his own border ; and he named the place " Fort Munro," after his Commis- sioner, Colonel Munro. But the Murrees and their neighbours, while they re- spected the district of Dera Ghazi Khan, could not be held back from harrying Kalat lands and the Sind border villages, where they had no longer Jacob to fear. Sandeman did his best. He was in friendly correspond- ence with the Sind frontier superintendent, Colonel Phayre, who sympathised largely with Sandeman's method of dealing directly with the tribes. But Kalat had now gone from bad to worse. The chiefs, highland and lowland, were again at open rupture with the young Khan, who remained in his fort at Kalat, while his soldiery ravaged the country and committed every sort of excess. The chiefs clamoured for the disbandment of his troops, and the restoration of their own ancient rights. Their demands were flatly refused and anarchy continued. (27) 28 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN So serious was the situation that high authority was called on to intervene. A conference was held in February, 1 871, between the Lieutenant-Governor of the Panjab and Sir William Merewether, the Commis- sioner in Sind, who in 1847, when a young lieutenant, had inflicted such signal chastisement on the Baluch raiders. The conference did little. Sir William held strongly to the view that the Khan was a supreme ruler, and that all dealings with the tribes of his country must be carried on through him. Sandeman, however, gained one point. His dealings with the Murrees were recog- nised, and, as far as they were concerned, he was placed in subordination to the Sind frontier officer. The Khan's troubles with his chiefs were not touched. By the close of 1 87 1 there was a general rising, and some of the Khan's towns were seized. His post at Dadar was attacked and his official there burned alive ; robberies and murders took place all over the country. Sir William was then called upon to arbitrate between the Khan and his rebellious Sardars. He reached the frontier for this purpose in March, 1872. Sandeman was sent to Jacobabad to attend this meeting, but was not allowed to take part in it. Sir William, who regarded the rising as due to sympathy with the cause of the chiefs indis- creetly shown by our frontier officers, removed Colonel Phayre from his post, and ordered Sandeman to leave Jacobabad — it is said, within twenty-four hours. This Sandeman did without a word : but before he left he put on record a note on the position of the chiefs, of which he had gained a fairly accurate knowledge. His fol- lowers were more upset than Sandeman himself. They had heard him described as a mere boy, and consoled themselves with the Persian proverb that "greatness depends on the intellect, not on the age ". Thus they went back, much grieved. Sandeman observed that right would win at last, and that he looked for the day when he himself would be at Quetta and control Kalat THE FIRST MISSION TO KALAT 29 affairs. " That," ill though he was, he would say, " is where we ought to be, and where I will be." Sir William's award effected little : it was based upon his view that the Khan was supreme, and that the chiefs had no valid grievances. The award was approved by the Government of India (of which Lord Northbrook was then the head), but it was not more fruitful than the con- ference of the year before. The Khan, indeed, did visit the Viceroy in Sind in November, 1872. But Kalat affairs did not mend, and in 1873 tne Khan's subsidy was stopped and our agent withdrawn. This was a curious step to take at a time when friendly personal influence with the Khan was clearly needed ; and misrule continued. The Khan's minister, who was a party to the award, fled from Kalat and sought refuge in Sind. The Brahui chiefs fled to the Murree hills and raided the Sind border, along with the Murrees. Sir William Merewether was driven to propose the despatch of a military force to Kalat, the deposition of the Khan, and the blockade of the Murrees. To these steps the Government were unwilling to agree. The question was long debated. Sandeman offered to proceed himself to the Baluch hills and ascertain by friendly enquiry the cause of these disturbances. His offer was at length accepted, and he was authorised to proceed on this mission, acting under the orders of Sir William, the Commissioner in Sind. He was to deal with the Murrees, make them give up their plunder and then, as he understood, go on to Kalat. The decision to send him was not easily taken. Sandeman was a young officer, quite unknown ; while the Commissioner, with the high authority of his long and distinguished record, was much opposed to him. However, Lord Northbrook's Government decided that they would try Sandeman, and he was sent. Before Sandeman started for Kalat he set to work to settle with the Murrees in his own special way. The 30 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN tribe, always dangerous, were then unusually restless and disturbed. They knew of his errand to them, and re- sented it. But he knew them, too, and he knew himself. With no military escort he rode into their hills, insisted on the return of the stolen cattle, and remained as a hostage until messengers came back to report that this had been done. He then went back, on good terms with the Murree chief, who sent his brother with the mission. The mission started in November, 1875. It had a small British escort of one hundred and twenty men ; and a numerous tribal following went with it. Chief after chief joined Sandeman. From his own district came the Mazari chief, the Laghari, and many more: the Baluch tribes outside were not behind-hand. In all, the train, as recorded by the Chronicler, comprised eleven chiefs of rank, with 1 106 horsemen and 300 footmen. The Chronicler was himself in the mission, as was his Hindu colleague. And with it too went Sandeman's major-domo, "Mr. Bux," whose infinite resource and stately presence have been admired by all Sir Robert's many guests, and by those too who have stayed at the Residency after Sir Robert's time. " Mr. Bux," now a titled native gentle- man, still lives in retirement at Quetta, where any one bearing the name of Sandeman is very dear to him. The mission did well. It passed through the Murree country. Among the halting-places was one known as "the place of vast mutton feasts," where returning raiders were in the habit of feasting on their way back from a foray. A halt was made at Sibi, then in Afghan hands, where the Murrees were a terror to the villages outside the town. Then the Bolan was entered at Dadar, which the Chronicler calls a small town and very dirty. Here the shopkeepers used to carry their goods every evening for safety to the house of a holy man, and bring them back the next morning. The Khan had troops at this place and his representative was a negro slave. The troops saluted the mission, and supplies were THE FIRST MISSION TO KALAT 31 provided. Then the mission wound its way by three long marches through this grim defile, suffering much from lack of forage. Reaching the head of the pass they entered the " plain of destitution," and then passed on to Sar-i-ab, the " head of the water," with its springs. This village was empty, as the tribesmen had gone down the pass as usual, to winter in the plains below. The mission was now in the Quetta valley, and entered Quetta, then known as Shal, on the next day. But while the business of the mission was progressing thus hopefully, affairs had taken an ill turn behind Sandeman's back. The Commissioner, far away at Karachi, was still in touch with Kalat, and his informa- tion from that quarter caused him to send express despatches, ordering Sandeman not to proceed beyond the Murree country, not to enter the Bolan, and to return at once. He had, in fact, been told that a revolution in Kalat was imminent. Sandeman was now in a most difficult position. The success of the mission seemed assured ; he was in no alarm, and had no occasion to ask for help. On the other hand, disregard of these specific orders might bring danger to the mission and ruin to himself. But his natural tenacity and shrewdness did not fail him. He decided to refer the whole matter to the Government of India, and then proceeded on his way. Kalat was reached on December 30, when he saw for the first time the great palace-fort, or " Miri," on the hill, and the clustered dwellings round it that form the town. The Khan received the mission in state; but when Sandeman paid his first visit to His Highness on De- cember 31, one of the notables asked the significant question : " Has the post from Sind reached the mission ? " Kalat, then, was well aware of the purport of the Sind despatches. The Khan held a formal Durbar on Janu- ary 1, when he received Sandeman and the chiefs who had joined the mission. These now included various Brahui chiefs, among them the premier chieftain of the 32 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN Highlanders. The Khan met Sandeman at the door and seated him on his right, placing his own eldest son on his left. The premier chief he stood up to greet ; to the Baluch chiefs he half rose ; to the others he merely gave greeting without rising. All the chiefs sat on the carpet, as was, and is, the Baluch way. Then conversation was opened on the matters in dispute, and resumed on the next and following days. In the course of the discussion the Khan observed that he had heard that Captain Sandeman was without authority. The discussions were friendly. The Khan seemed willing to come to an understanding with the chiefs, if they would undertake to be loyal to him. He was warm in his expressions of loyalty to the Government of India and Her Majesty the Queen, saying that he was pre- pared to appear at any place to which they might summon him, even in London. The Murrees and other tribes spoke of amendment. At this stage, on January 4, 1876, news arrived of an affray between the Khan's troops and certain Brahui villagers, ten of whom were killed. Sandeman gave orders for striking camp and re- turning at once. This reached the Khan's ears, for he came on that same evening to the mission camp. He was, however, in an intractable mood, and treated the affray with levity. "It is impossible," he said, "to rule the country without the sword. If Captain Sandeman is so annoyed at this insignificant matter, what will he be if I kill an ill-behaved chief to-morrow ? " The mission marched for the plains on the next morning, but not by the route by which they had come. On January 13 the Khan wrote reporting a fight between his men and one of the leading lowland chiefs, who was killed. He said also that he was releasing, at Captain Sandeman's instance, the villagers whom his troops had captured in the recent affray. Thus he showed some sort of feeling of responsibility. With this the work of the first mission ended. It was disappointing : nothing definite had been THE FIRST MISSION TO KALAT 33 achieved. Sandeman, however, had gained much know- ledge, and made some impression upon the Khan ; nor was he without hope for the future, although he saw that he "had a hard nut to crack in His Highness the Khan". When he reached the plains good news awaited him. The Commissioner's action in recalling him had been considered by the Government, and held to be mistaken. The supreme authorities decided that Sandeman must be supported. As his views and the Commissioner's could not be reconciled, they relieved the latter of all further responsibility for Kalat affairs. Thus ended a long controversy. The relief to Sande- man was immense. Writing to his father he says : " I have had a hard battle, but the conquest is complete. Thank God for His goodness to the people and to me." That was his first thought. It was clearly recognised, moreover, that the success of his mission had been affected injuriously by the orders which sought to recall him, when his work was hardly begun. CHAPTER V. KALA*T AGAIN. KalAt affairs did not improve after the first mission. The chiefs, enraged at the killing of one of their number, took to reprisals. The tribesmen were up and the Bolan was closed. Caravans could not pass through, and the traders clamoured for redress. The Government of India could not remain inactive. They resolved to try Sandeman again, and to give him this time a better chance. He was now sent on a formal mission, bearing a letter from the Viceroy to the Khan, in which Lord Northbrook said that he was sending Major Sandeman (as he had now become), in whom he had full confidence, to confer with His Highness on the affairs of Kalat, and effect a settlement, if possible, of all disputes. The strength of the escort by which the mission was accom- panied has sometimes been criticised to Sandeman's dis- advantage : but it was clearly appropriate to the occasion and was not excessive. The Baluch following was much reduced. The faithful Mazari chief, with his colleague, the Laghari, went with the mission ; the Chronicler was in due attendance. The mission started on April 4, 1876, and six marches brought them to the mouth of the Bolan. The summer heat had now set in. Cholera broke out, and the mission had to make a long halt in the pass, until the disease was stayed. A large caravan, which had followed in its wake, was also attacked and had to be moved up the pass as quickly as possible. By April 27 the mission had reached Mastung, in the up- (34) KALAT AGAIN 35 lands, and left the scorching pass behind. By that time Sandeman was in correspondence with the Khan, and numerous chiefs had joined him. There was much fencing by His Highness with the invitation to meet the mission. There were rumours of disturbances, and threats and counter-threats of action by the Khan's troops and the chiefs. Sandeman remained calm and unperturbed. The news of his father's death reached him at this time. He felt it deeply, but bore the blow with his customary patience and resignation. At last the Khan decided to accept the invitation ; and he arrived at Mastung on May 31. Meantime Sandeman had other anxieties. Lord Northbrook, who had much regard for him, had resigned the Viceroyalty ; and Lord Lytton was appointed by Mr. Disraeli's Government to succeed him. The position on the Indian frontier had become a matter of grave con- cern to the British Government. Khiva had been con- quered by Russia in 1873, an< ^ m tne two following years Russian occupation had been pushed much further towards India. Russian intercourse and influence with the Afghan Amir, Sher Ali, had rapidly grown. It was rightly surmised in India that a change of policy in our Afghan and other frontier relations would be initiated by the new Viceroy ; but how that change might affect his mission Sandeman could not forecast. Lord Lytton had, in fact, projected, with the authority of the Cabinet, the despatch of a friendly mission to Kabul, to be combined with one to Kalat and reach Kabul by Quetta and Kandahar ; * and he had asked Lord Northbrook there- fore to suspend Sandeman's mission. To this Lord Northbrook was unable to agree. In the event Sandeman had started only a few days before Lord Lytton 's arrival in India, feeling that his mission might be superseded or modified at any moment. He received no communica- 1 " Lord Lytton's Indian Administration," Lady Betty Balfour. Long- mans, 1S92. 36 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN tion from the Viceroy until June, and that was nothing more than a very guarded message of congratulation on his progress. Thus he was kept in a state of suspense which he felt acutely. Still he set himself steadily to the work in hand. The Khan rode into Mastung on May 31. Sandeman with a troop of cavalry rode out to meet him. He and the Khan dismounted, shook hands, and rode in together in friendly talk. This ceremony is one to which great importance is attached ; it is called the " Peshwai," or advance meeting. The Khan brought with him an escort of three hundred horse and foot, and many villagers were gathered in to swell the grandeur of his camp in the Mastung "Miri". In the afternoon Sandeman visited him there, performing the ceremony of " Mizaj-pursi," or "asking after health". This, too, is a grave ceremony that must never be omitted. On June 1 a formal Durbar was held in the mission camp, where it was noticed that the Khan looked ill at ease and gloomy. Sandeman said a few general words only, on the need for union and consultation, and the uselessness of seeking peace by fighting. On the next day Sandeman, with his two Baluch chiefs, visited the Khan, who asked, point-blank, if the Government would help him with an army to punish the Brahuis. Sandeman replied, point-blank and emphati- cally, that they would not. This frank exchange alto- gether cleared the air ; for the Khan at once agreed that he would leave his affairs in the hands of Major Sandeman, and abide by his decision. A Commission was then appointed. The Khan named two representatives ; and Sandeman nominated the two Baluch chiefs as arbitrators on the part of the Brahui chiefs. Two better mediators could not have been found ; since the Baluch were in- dependent of the Khan and were not connected with the Brahuis. Statements of grievances by both parties were drawn up, and good progress was made towards agree- KALAT AGAIN 37 ment. The lowland chiefs were now on their way up. They did not get through, however, without a skirmish with the Khan's troops, in which men were killed on both sides. By June 7 the agreement regarding the disputes be- tween the Khan and the chiefs was ready. The Khan had assented to it and affixed his seal. The highland chiefs were summoned to the mission : each came in with a following of two hundred men. The premier chief, the Raisani, was taken by Sandeman to see the Khan on the next day. The Khan's manner was off-hand : he did not give the chief the customary greeting. Some of the chiefs followers kissed the Khan's hand : some did not. There was silence, when Sandeman, rising, took the chief's hand and placed it in the Khan's, saying, "The Khan is the master : you are his chief. He should be favourable to you." The Khan replied that, if God willed, all would be well. On June 10 and 11 all the highland chiefs attended the Khan's Durbar. They were well received. The Khan observed that they now attended his Durbar according to the old custom, and how beautiful and pleasant a thing it was. The chiefs replied that they considered the day very fortunate, in that they held their seats in the Durbar of their old ruler. On June 12 a characteristic incident occurred. The mission post-bags were attacked in the Bolan. The carriers, having dismounted to drink, were fired on and fled to a hill. The horses, which ran away with the bags, were carried off. They were recovered later. On June 16 the premier highland chief went to see the Khan alone. He touched the Khdn's feet, and laid his sword before him saying, " I offer my head also ". The Khan was much moved. He embraced him, and girt him with the sword with his own hands, saying, " You are my old Sardar and I consider you my arm. Use this sword against my enemies. I will favour you to the utmost of 38 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN my power." The news of this, soon noised abroad, caused general cheerfulness. The Khan ordered his troops to withdraw to Kalat. The lowland chiefs were now drawing near, while messengers came in from the Pathan tribes beyond Quetta and from the Zhob valley. They were perturbed at the arrival of British officers and troops, and anxious to find out what it all meant. They had grievances against the Murrees for raids, and said that they would fall upon and annihilate them. On June 29 measures were ar- ranged for the protection of the Bolan pass. The Khan agreed to keep it secure, and for this purpose to act in consultation with Major Sandeman, and to maintain communications with his subjects. He and Sandeman were now on very friendly terms. " The burden," His Highness said, " must now be borne half by myself and half by Major Sandeman." On July 5, the lowlanders arrived. They were no small body : the chiefs and their following numbered 2000 men. They had been delayed, they said, by the heat of the road and the loss of eighty camels and horses. Otherwise they would have travelled as fast as a bird. The settlement already agreed to by the highlanders was announced to them. Councils were convened to hear and decide minor disputes. Concilia- tion made rapid strides in all directions. Prisoners and their families were released, as well as female slaves who had been sent to the Khan's harem. On July 13, when agreement had been reached on all matters, a final Durbar was held. This was a great and imposing function. On chairs in the centre sat the Khan and Sandeman. On the right sat the Khan's relations and officials: on the left the chiefs in due order. The mission escort furnished one guard of honour. The Khan's troops furnished another, with a band. The document containing the agreed terms of the settlement was brought in, with the Koran, and placed on a chair. All Mohammedans rose as their sacred KALAT AGAIN 39 book was brought in. The document was read aloud. The seals attached to it were shown to, and recognised by, the parties. All affirmed the binding nature of the agreement in the most solemn manner. Then a salute was fired : gifts of embroidered turbans, brocade and muslin, horses and silver-mounted saddles, were bestowed : and the Durbar ended. The Mastung Settlement, which is the foundation of all order in the Kalat country, thus came about, and it has remained in force ever since. The parties then dispersed, the Khan going back to Kaldt. Sandeman soon followed, after sending back part of his escort, and he remained there until December. It was in these two months, June and July, 1876, that the pacification of Baluchistan was accomplished. To Sandeman it was a time of strenuous and constant effort. The pleasant Mastung valley in the upland mountains was strangely transfigured. One can picture the group of mission tents, with the flag flying on the flag-staff before them ; the long lines of the escort ; the scattered camps of the chiefs with their crowds of retainers and horses ; the Khan in the fort, with his escort and follow- ing pitched round its walls. The camp was full of stir and animation. Messengers were coming in hourly with news from all quarters, sometimes good, sometimes alarming. Rumour was busy : wild men brought in wild stories and talked them over with excited groups of men as wild as themselves. Over all this stir and hum Sandeman was the one controlling influence. Anxious, but unperturbed, he steadily pursued his one aim ot con- ciliation, overcoming difficulty after difficulty, composing quarrel after quarrel. The chiefs now knew and trusted him, and he had secured also the Khan's goodwill. He was a commanding figure, with heavy frame, strong jaw, and small light eyes which, when he was — as often — deep in thought, looked rather through than at the person or thing before him. At Mastung in this wild mixed concourse he was at his best. Among the curious 4 o SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN features of his unequalled hold on the tribes was his ignorance of their language. He could speak Hindu- stani fluently, but incorrectly : few beside the chiefs could understand him. Yet they rarely failed to gather his meaning, and, still more rarely, did they disregard it. He was no lawyer: he disliked law. But the most eminent lawyer could not have drawn up a better settle- ment. Sandeman was able in September to report to the Viceroy the settlement which he had effected. Lord Lytton, says the Chronicler, was "not quite convinced of the improved state of the country ". The Chronicler, as usual, puts matters in a nut-shell. The settlement, in view of the past and recent history, must have appeared almost incredible. Lord Lytton's Military Secretary, Colonel Colley (who afterwards fell on Majuba Hill), was sent to Kalat. He bore letters from the Viceroy to the Khan and to Major Sandeman. These dealt with the preparation of a fresh treaty with the Khan, which the Viceroy proposed to ratify at Jacobabad, where he invited His Highness to meet him. Lord Lytton also invited His Highness to take part in the coming great assembly at Delhi, when Her Majesty Queen Victoria was to assume the title of " Empress of India ". The Khan received Colonel Colley in Durbar, pressed the Viceroy's letter to his forehead, accepted its invitations, and prepared for the coming meeting. Colonel Colley' s report on Kalat affairs was favourable, and Robert Sandeman's official reputation was made. In the interval at Kalat, Sandeman and the Khan met frequently. Khudadad Khan had entered young on his stormy public life. Young advisers seem to have had the same attraction for him as they had for King Reho- boam ; and but for Sandeman he could hardly have kept his kingdom. He reminds one constantly of Mr. Kipling's words: — Half devil and half child. kalAt AGAIN 41 At this moment, however, the Khan and the envoy de- bated matters of State policy with mutual goodwill. The Khan, in dealing with his chiefs and subjects, favoured a doggerel Hindustani couplet, which may be para- phrased : — First beat them ; Then treat them. Sandeman suggested a better rhyme : — When reasoning fails, Then twist their tails. This has been labelled an old proverb ; but it seems pos- sible that it was an original effort of the Sandemanian muse. If so it stands alone. The two couplets were gravely discussed in Durbar, and show what manner of people Sandeman had to deal with. From Kalat to Jacobabad and Delhi the road was now easy. The Khan with a retinue of 3000 followers moved down to the plains. The chiefs passed down the Bolan. A portion of the British escort marched to Quetta, where we had by treaty the right to place troops. Early in December Lord Lytton reached Jacobabad. He re- ceived the Khan in a great Durbar, and the new treaty was signed. Lord Lytton describes the assembly as most picturesque and uncouth. "The little Khan," he says, "was very nervous or alarmed and trembled violently. He has the furtive face and restless eye of a little hunted wild beast which has long lived in danger of its life. But his manners were good, and his face, as soon as it loses its expression of alarm and mistrust, not unpleasing." Poor Khudadad ! He was deposed not long after the death of Sandeman — his elder brother, as he used to call him. A cruel series of murders, which he directed, was the occasion of his fall. He lived many years in retirement, in comfort and ease. His manners were pleasing to the last ; the restless eye he never lost, but he caused no difficulties and passed a peaceful old age, a fatalist and a philosopher. 42 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN At the Delhi assembly the Khan and his wild Sardars were an object of great interest. The chiefs and re- tainers, with their long ringlets, were the observed of all observers. The KMn was much delighted with all that he saw, especially with the banners given to the feudatory princes of India ; for one of which he pleaded, although he was no feudatory but an ally. Sandeman received Lord Lytton's cordial congratulations. The C.S.I, was bestowed on him, and he was now appointed as the representative of our Government at Kalat, with head- quarters at Quetta and a suitable staff. He was anxious for a holiday after his long and strenuous labours. But leave could not be granted. Trouble was coming on the border. Of the decorations then bestowed a good share fell to those who had worked for Sandeman. He never forgot his men. The two Baluch chiefs received honours : the Chronicler was not overlooked. Of his leader he writes : " No sooner had the boat of his mission reached the shore of success than the first thing he did was to reward those who had prominently assisted him ". CHAPTER VI. QUETTA IN THE AFGHAN WAR. So, in the spring of 1877, Sandeman went to Quetta, where he had long said that he meant to be. He was now clothed with authority, and was, in fact, supreme in Baluchistan. He was cheered by letters from Lord Northbrook, and by the cordial support given to him by Lord Lytton. On his way he was badly thrown from his horse and had to be carried in on a litter. At Quetta he purchased land for a Residency and for lines for the troops. During the building of the Residency one of the engineers, Lieutenant Hewson, was murdered by fanatical Pathans who had become " ghazi " ; that is, had vowed at all cost to take the life of an unbeliever. The men came behind the officers, with knives hidden in their cloaks. Hewson was stabbed through the back, and his companion wounded. The murderers did not escape. Captain Scott, who was not far away on parade, heard the shouting and ran to the spot, taking a rifle and bayonet from his orderly. He bayoneted two of them and closed with the third, who was also cut down. Captain Scott's conspicuous gallantry was rewarded with the Victoria Cross. There were several of these murders in the early Quetta days. The valley was water-logged and unhealthy; and the town long had an ill name, preserved in Mr. Kipling's "Jack Barrett went to Quetta » :— I shouldn't like to be the man, Who sent Jack Barrett there. (43) 44 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN At that time the Khan's representative occupied the old fort, with a few troops ; and within its enclosure were the dwellings of Hindu traders and artisans, squalid and poverty-stricken. The Bolan traffic, by which these men had lived, had ceased. They could not cultivate, as the Khan's revenue charges were enormous, and their har- vests were raided. Cattle were only safe close to the fort. The Khan's official could not go far outside it. The Brahuis defied him : so strong had been the feeling between them and the Khan that the latter had said openly : " Should a Brahui chance to find his way to Heaven, I will apply to God either to allot me a separate room or permit me to go and live in hell ". The Pathan tribes were equally lawless and defiant. Pishm was in Afghan hands and the roads were closed. "When Major Sandeman first came to Quetta it was," says the Chronicler, "a fearful time. Thieves and robbers in- fested it in those days. It was seldom that a night passed over our heads without the report of firearms, and often one would get out of bed through fear." Sandeman dealt successfully with these evil surround- ings. From the Khan he leased the Quetta valley on a favourable rent, which was nearly double the amount of its yearly value to him. He took over the fort, removed the traders to a site outside, and housed the escort there. The Residency was built on another site. It was a domed mud house, comfortable, but very different from the luxurious residence of his successors. He then turned to the Bolan pass and completed the arrange- ments for protecting and keeping it open. This done, after a visit to Kalat and the lowland chiefs' country, he was able to snatch a brief visit to England. He was back in July, 1878. By this time war with Afghanistan was imminent. A "jehad," or holy war against the unbeliever, had been proclaimed at Kandahar. The Pathan tribes round Quetta were much excited, as were the Khan's soldiery QUETTA IN THE AFGHAN WAR 45 and some of the Baluch chiefs. Sandeman had no light task in keeping the country quiet and preserving loyalty and goodwill. He also gathered intelligence from south Afghanistan and Kandahar, and stored advance sup- plies of grain and fodder. All these things, says the Chronicler, he did exceedingly well. In September, 1878, the storm broke, and our mission to the Amir of Afghanistan was refused passage through the Khyber pass. The Quetta garrison was at once strengthened by a division under General Biddulph. On November 2 1 war was declared. Biddulph's force moved forward and occupied Pishin without resistance. Sande- man went with it. Sibi, below, was also occupied. In both places the inhabitants were quite friendly. A further force, seven thousand strong, moved up the Bolan under General Stewart, while a reserve force was placed at Sukkur on the Indus. Meantime Sandeman, with the aid of the Pathan tribes, crossed the mountains between Pishin and Kandahar, and found the pass, the Khojak, unoccupied. The Khan of Kalat proved a loyal and helpful ally. Stewart crossed the Afghan border on January 1 , 1 879. Sandeman was most anxious to go with him ; for he thought that, acting with the chiefs, he could effect a settlement at Kandahar, as he had done at Mas- tung. But he was considered indispensable at Quetta. Stewart reached Kandahar on January 9, 1879, without righting. Meantime on the Kabul side events were hap- pening in quick succession. General Roberts, advancing on Kabul through the Kurram valley, gained a brilliant victory at the Peiwar Kotal on December 1, 1878. The Amir, Sher Ali, fled from Kabul ; and in February, 1879, he died. His son, Yakub Khan, succeeded him and sued for peace. So far everything had been easy, far too easy. The great value of Quetta and Sandeman's pacification had been clearly shown. Stewart was left in Kandahar with a garrison of six thousand men. Biddulph's force was sent 46 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN back to India, not by the Bolin pass, but by a much shorter road which led to Sandeman's old district of Dera Ghdzi. On this road Sandeman set a high value. It was an old trade route between India and Kandahar, and passed through Pathan tribal country, adjacent to the Zhob valley, of which a certain Shah Jahan, a tribal chieftain, was called Padshah, or King. Amir Abdur Rahman l had passed down this valley in 1869, with his uncle, when both were fugitives after their defeat by Amir Sher AH. They were in evil case, hard put to it to find food enough to keep them alive. The " King of Zhob w was an old man, wearing an old patched coat of sheepskin and a filthy turban. His mare, all skin and bone, had bells tied round her knees, and bells hung from her cloth bridle. This dreadful appari- tion scared the uncle's horse and he cried to his nephew for help. This Abdur Rahman refused ; he could not, he said, come between two Kings. Nor would he help until his uncle promised to give him one of his two swords. Then he quieted the animals. The " King" was a sub- ject of much mirth to Abdur Rahman: "King of the Devils " he calls him, and curses him for leading them the wrong way among thieves. Shah Jahan was still to the fore in 1879. He was a holy man and a reputed worker of miracles. He gathered together a large body of tribesmen and attacked Sande- man, who was with the advance party of Biddulph's force. The tribesmen were defeated in a sharp fight and sued for peace. At one place the advance was delayed by a single tribesman, who, behind a stone barricade, defied the whole force. He was entangled in shawls thrown over him by friendlies, and made prisoner. On the next day the hillmen collected in another defile and refused to give way. The prisoner broke loose ; and shouting to them, " Who are you to dare to fight when I have surrendered ! " he dispersed them. 1 " Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan." Murray, 1900. QUETTA IN THE AFGHAN WAR 47 On May 26, 1879, the peace treaty of Gandamak between ourselves and Amir Yakub Khan was signed. This ceded to us Pishfn, Sibi, and other Afghan places in Baluchistan. An uncle of the Amir was sent to Kandahar as Governor, and our troops were ordered to withdraw. Sandeman was busy taking over the ceded districts, when an outbreak of cholera swept over Quetta. Mrs. Bruce, the only lady there during the first three years of our occupation, was attacked. Sandeman at once took her children into the Residency, where several of his servants died of the disease ; but Mrs. Bruce herself recovered after a very dangerous illness. In July, 1879, appeared the Honours Gazette for services rendered in the war. Sandeman became a K. C.S.I. "No decora- tion," says Dr. Thornton, his biographer, " was ever better earned." The work and strain had told heavily on Sir Robert, who suffered from insomnia and greatly needed rest. But it was no time for rest. The boundary with Kan- dahar had to be fixed that summer. On September 5, when the tents had been struck in Kandahar, and the division had started on its march back to Quetta, came the grave news of the massacre at Kabul of our envoy, Sir Louis Cavagnari, and his entire staff and escort. Kandahar was at once occupied again. Sandeman left for the Afghan border to reassure the tribes, and help to keep open communications. On the Peshawar side General Roberts reached Kabul, after severe fighting, on October 12. The Amir Yakub Khan abdicated and was sent to India. In December there was heavy fighting round Kabul, and a general rising : but Roberts held his ground. At Kandahar things were quiet. Below Quetta the railway was pushed on as fast as possible from Sukkur to the foot of the Bolan. It was open for traffic up to Sibi by January, 1880. One of the stations in the Sind desert is still called "Jhutput," which means " Hurry". The engineers had to find a name for it and 48 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN could think of none better. It was arranged that the line should be taken on through the mountains, not by the Bolan but by the Harnai valley. This lies in Murree and Pathan tribal country. Great numbers of labourers were employed, and it was not easy to protect them. The Pathans ambushed and shot down Captain Showers, of the Baluch guides, and defied Sandeman. He at once attacked them with a small escort, drove them from the hills and blew up their towers. He was conspicuous in the fight in white clothes : and his sun-hat was pierced by a bullet, as he stooped down to help his orderly who had fallen wounded. In the spring of 1880, an indepen- dent ruler of Kandahar was recognised. Stewart's force was relieved by a division under General Primrose, and marched to Kabul ; where it arrived at the end of April. On the way Stewart had fought and won two fierce battles before Ghazni. In England a general election took place at this time (March, 1880), and on April 28, Lord Beaconsfield's Government was replaced by Mr. Gladstone's. As the Afghan War had been denounced by the new Prime Minister, Lord Lytton resigned the Viceroyalty; and his successor, the Marquis of Ripon, reached India on June 8. The policy of cutting off Kandahar from Afghanistan was abandoned. Abdur Rahman, a member of the ruling house, who now had returned to his country after twelve years of exile in Russian Turkestan, was re- garded with favour as a likely successor to the vacant throne of Afghanistan. At the same time rumour had long been busy regard- ing the plans and movements of Ayub Khan, Yakub's younger brother, who had fled to Herat on his father's death. No importance was attached to these stories at Kandahar ; but Sandeman, at Quetta, is said to have warned the Government that there was danger from Ayub. The warning, if given, was not heeded, and in June it was known that Ayub was marching on Kanda- QUETTA IN THE AFGHAN WAR 49 har in force. The Kandahar Governor sent troops to drive him back. They were mistrusted, and a British brigade was sent with them. On July 13 they mutinied, and moved off to join the enemy. The British brigade attacked and dispersed them, and then marched to Maiwand to intercept Ayub. It was attacked on July 27, by Ayub's force, which was largely swollen by fanatics and tribesmen. The brigade gave way, and the battle of Maiwand ended in a disastrous defeat in which we lost, in killed and missing, over 1200 officers and men. The news reached Quetta on the morning of July 28. By August 8, Ayub had invested Kandahar. At this crisis Sandeman's resource and counsel were most helpful. General Phayre, his old comrade of Jacobabad days, was now commanding in Quetta. Jointly they pressed for an immediate concentration on Pishin of all troops that could be spared. This involved the aban- donment of the great railway works and the posts on the new road to India. It was done at once, and Phayre's column started to relieve Kandahar. On August 9, Sir Frederick Roberts also started for Kandahar from Kabul, on the long and difficult march of 313 miles which is famous in our history. He reached Kandahar on August 31, and on the following day completely routed Ayub. Abdur Rahman had been recognised already as Amir of Afghanistan. The war was now over. While these events were happening, Sandeman was tireless in his activities. He defeated Ayub's attempts to intrigue with Kalat, and both the Khan and the chiefs remained thoroughly loyal. The heavy demand for transport and supplies to serve our armies at Kandahar was largely borne by Baluchistan. Sandeman was the inspiring genius. Twenty thousand camels were col- lected, hired, and worked in relays over the long road from rail-head to Kandahar. No such transport had been got together and paid for in the country before. Sandeman was everywhere conspicuous, encouraging, 4 50 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN threatening, persuading, and settling with the chiefs and camel owners. His work was on the simple lines of prompt, just payment ; and he carried it through. The tribesmen along the railway alignment gave trouble. The Murrees could not keep their hands from a weakly guarded treasure convoy, which they fiercely attacked and plundered. The Pathan tribesmen, too, broke out. Shah Jahan of Zhob, with a large gathering, attacked one of our posts, but he was beaten off. The Murrees were severely punished when Roberts' force returned to India through Quetta. The railway alignment was again guarded, and the military road to the plains once more taken in hand. The Afghan frontier was now quiet, and a breathing time began. Baluchistan had come well through the long crisis. The Chronicler observes that, " had not Sir Robert Sandeman already spread the influence of the British power, the people would have deserted the country on seeing such a large number of troops pass through it ; and the troops would have been put to great inconvenience and trouble ". He is right. In January, 1 88 1, the Home Government decided to abandon Kan- dahar ; and the troops were withdrawn in April. On this question of large policy Sandeman's opinion was clear. "The new Amir of Afghanistan, whoever he may be," he wrote, " can never be our friend as long as the most valuable part of the Afghan kingdom is in our possession." In the spring of 1881, he left for England on his first long holiday since he landed in India twenty-five years before. The Khan of Kalat's farewell letter to him ends : "I pray you to think of the sincere friend who is ever with you, like a second kernel in one almond ". CHAPTER VII. THE FURTHER SETTLEMENT OF BALUCHISTAN. Sir Robert returned to India at the close of 1882. He had married again while on furlough, and the union was a most happy one. Lady Sandeman came out with him to see, in a wild, strange country, a wonderful welcome given to her husband. Horsemen dashed ahead and signalled his coming as he marched through the Bolan : great and small rejoiced as one man. He had not been idle in England. In the settlement with Afghanistan the proposal to cede Pishin and Sibi had been entertained favourably by the British Government. Sandeman would have none of it. He knew how slender was the Afghan claim to these places, and their importance to Baluchistan, of which they formed an in- tegral part He urged his views strongly in every way open to him. Sir Charles Dilke (who was then at the Foreign Office) is believed to have adopted them and pressed them on the Cabinet. In the end the districts were retained. Sandeman was now free to resume the task of estab- lishing order throughout Baluchistan. There still re- mained great areas where peace was unknown, life cheap, the land untilled, and the people backward and impover- ished. Hitherto the strain of the war had kept him busy at Quetta — now a great place of arms — and in northern Baluchistan, where the work which he had done was bearing fruit. In the winter of 1883, therefore, he went south to visit the lowland country, where many (so 52 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN disputes were composed. He then passed on to Kharan, the desert stronghold of a chief whose name was very- famous on the Persian border. Azad Khan of Kharan — the chief in question — was then ninety-seven years old. Bowed with age, he could still, once assisted into the saddle, sit his horse and ride with the endurance of a much younger man. He could look back on a long career of border forays and strife. He claimed Persian rather than Baluch descent : though his house and that of the Khan of Kalat were connected by marriage. He had fought against us in 1839, and again in 1856. He had joined the Brahui chiefs in their rebellion in 1 871 ; and in 1876 he had raided the Persian border. He was now at feud with the Khan of Kalat and the lowland chiefs on the Mekran side, one of whom his son had lately attacked and slain. He was no party to the Mastung settlement. However, he trusted Sir Robert, and knew, as all the country knew, what had been done in northern Baluchistan. Hence the aged chief received the British Resident and his cortege with every mark of favour, welcoming the prospect of peace at last. His disputes and feuds were enquired into and settled, and Kharan joined the Baluch confederacy. No British official had visited this region before, and the " Kharan conciliation " was one of the most striking of Sandeman's minor triumphs. Azad Khan died in 1886 in his 101st year. His son, Sir Nauroz Khan, who succeeded him, died not long ago. There were no further troubles in Kharan in Sandeman's time. From there he passed on into Mekran, composing quarrels as he marched along, much grieved by the misery which he found there. u A life," says the Chronicler, " would there be sacrificed for a piece of cloth worth a few pence." Having reached the coast, Sandeman took ship for Karachi, and returned to Quetta early in 1 884. In the spring he marched east to the other end of his vast charge. Shah Jahan of Zhob could not look on FURTHER SETTLEMENT OF BALUCHISTAN 53 idly while a new road, with military posts, was being built on the outskirts of his country. Many murderous attacks were made on our people. A camp of labourers was badly cut up, and seven men killed. In these cir- cumstances a force was sent into the Zhob country in the autumn, which destroyed Shah Jahan's fort, dispersed his following and reduced the tribes to submission. Sandeman had also the task of transporting across the desert, as far as the Helmund river, the Indian section of the British Boundary Commission, which was to de- limit the Russo-Afghan border in conjunction with the Russian Commission. This was a matter of considerable difficulty. The party, which consisted of 1500 men and as many animals, had to be taken over 225 miles of desert, where a road had to be marked out with plough- shares, flares, and posts. 1 The number of wells that had to be dug was 800 ; and the party was formed into separate contingents which left at intervals of a day, so that the wells might have time to fill up again after they had been drained of water. These arrangements were carried out successfully, and the party crossed the desert without a hitch. In 1885, after what is called the Panjdeh incident, when the Russian forces on the Afghan border attacked and routed the Afghans, war with Russia seemed imminent ; and Sandeman was again called upon to provide transport for a large force at Quetta. An- other great corps of camels was collected and worked on his simple and most efficient method. The crisis passed, however, and war was avoided. In 1886 the special calls on Sir Robert were less ex- acting. He could apply himself to making roads, re- placing military posts by tribal levies, starting hospitals, and generally improving the tracts which he administered. The work on the railway, which had been discontinued after the Afghan War of 1878-80, was resumed in 1884, 1 Sir Hugh Barnes, " Journal, Central Asian Society," Vol. VI., p. 79, 54 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN and the line was carried through the mountains on to the Afghan border. The condition of the country was im- proved so greatly that distinguished visitors began to find their way to Quetta. Among them were the Duke and Duchess of Connaught, who stayed there in March, 1887. On this occasion the railway bridge across the great Chappar rift was opened for traffic by the Duchess, and its name, the " Louise Margaret " bridge, commemor- ates the event. Later on Sir Robert was able to take a six months' holiday in England. He returned to Quetta in December, and in April, 1888, he was called away to Las Bela, where the chief had died. Towards the close of this year he marched up the Zhob valley, where he hoped that, in his own special way, he could make friends of the chiefs, bring the tribes under control, and put an end to the constant trouble in that quarter. The valley was still a no-man's land, neither British nor Afghan. Its tribes were at feud among themselves and a pest to their neighbours. This tour was most successful. The chiefs were re- conciled among themselves, and Sandeman was willing to support their authority. They petitioned that their country might be taken under British protection — a step which Sandeman strongly pressed. He was anxious, not only to benefit the inhabitants, but also to gain friendly access to the old trade route from Afghanistan, that entered India through the Gumal pass. This route he hoped to re-open and develop. It had long been closed to regular and peaceful traffic by the fierce and rapacious Waziris, through whose mountains the caravans bought, or fought, their way to the old trading centre of Dera Ismail Khan in the Indus valley. 1 The Zhob valley question was decided late in the year 1889. Sir Robert's proposals were adopted, and he started from 1 It is with this large and powerful group of tribesmen that our forces have now (1920) long been fighting in what is called the Derajat cam- paign. FURTHER SETTLEMENT OF BALUCHISTAN 55 Quetta for the valley in December, taking a considerable staff and escort, and his customary following of Baluch chiefs. When he reached the village of Apozai l he was met by a small group of tribesmen, unmounted, ragged and unkempt. Four or five young men came to Sande- man's horse, kissed his hand, held his stirrup, and gave him a letter. It was from the chief, their father, written on his deathbed. He welcomed Sir Robert, commended his family to his care, and prayed him to excuse his sons if they were late for the meeting, since they had stayed to watch their father die. Sandeman, much moved, passed into camp. 2 On December 27, Sir Robert proclaimed the pro- tectorate of Zhob, and commenced to build the station at Apozai, now called Fort Sandeman after its founder. He remained there until the latter half of January, to watch the new buildings and give time for the assembly of the tribesmen who had been summoned from Waziri- stan. These came in in great numbers, bristling with arms ; but they were well disposed and tractable. When all was in train at Apozai, the mission started for the Gumal pass, which had not been traversed before by any British official, marched through it and reached the plains below. There was but one misadventure. A non-commissioned native officer of the escort, who had gone, against orders, some distance from camp, was shot. Sandeman, writing, says : " The Waziris have behaved in a most exemplary way : not even a petty theft has occurred, and we have 700 in camp, many of them most accomplished thieves ". At the end of Janu- ary the pass was declared open : tribal service was ap- portioned on a new and liberal scale and posts established. This done, Sandeman reached the rail and moved back to Quetta. He was attracted by the Waziris, whom he describes as a wild but really fine people. He adds that 1 Sir T. Holdich, "The Indian Borderland," Chap. VIII. 2 The family is still cared for by the Government of India. 56 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN a little time and patience with them would give our Government entire control of the pass. In this he was over-sanguine, as subsequent events have shown. Even at this time the work of settlement in this quarter was not complete. The Shiranis, a fierce Pathan tribe who live in the mountain range of the Suliman and on the slopes of the great peak which is called the Takht, or throne, of Solomon, had only in part come in to Apozai. Two of the Zhob chiefs were "out," and had also not come in. These men plundered the valley and even attacked Apozai. It was necessary in the autumn of 1890 to send a military expedition to bring them into order. The towers of the two outlaws were blown up and the Shiranis reduced to submission. The force met with little resistance and returned to Quetta in November. Sir Robert was badly hurt by a fall from his horse, which came down with him and crushed his knee ; but there was no rest for him. In December, 1890, he was called to the distant coastal region, where disturbances had broken out. The work took him far inland and was important. He returned in February, 1891, leaving his assistant, Major Muir, to carry it on, and planned a journey to Calcutta where he was anxious to explain in person certain proposals which he was making regarding the Mekran country. But he was suddenly called back again. Major Muir had been attacked and wounded very seriously by one of the Mekran chiefs. The man was well known personally to Sir Robert as a thorough scoundrel. Muir was strolling outside his tents in the evening with only one attendant, when he met him. The chief cut down and killed the attendant, and Muir, who carried only a walking stick, was terribly wounded by sword cuts. Sir Robert reached the coast in March, and, having sent Major and Mrs. Muir by troopship to Bombay, arranged matters in Mekran and returned to Quetta. Here he framed his Mekran proposals. That dry, sun-baked border region had a great hold on him. He was most FURTHER SETTLEMENT OF BALUCHISTAN 57 anxious to redress the misery which he found there, and to develop the country in various ways. But his health broke down. He was worn out by work and exposure, and compelled to take leave home in May. He was replaced at Quetta by Sir O. St. John, who died there in June. Sir Robert returned in November, 1 891. He should never have done so. But his passion for work was strong, and Mekran had greatly moved him. The call for one more tussle with his old enemies of misrule and misery was irresistible. Disregarding his doctor's urgent protests, he set his face once more to the East. CHAPTER VIII. LAST DAYS. In November Sir Robert returned with Lady Sandeman to Quetta. Much work awaited him and kept him there till Christmas. Early in January (1892) he started for Mekran. He sailed from Karachi with his staff on the 1 6th; but he had arranged to visit Las Bela, where the chief and his son were at strife, on his way down the coast, and for this purpose the party disembarked at the little roadstead of Somniani. From this point they marched for Bela, which was reached on January 23. Heavy rain fell on the way. Sir Robert caught cold, but made light of it. At Bela, where he was received with ceremony, he was busy with work, and equal to seeing the illuminations of the little town. But in the evening he was very unwell and took to his bed. On the 24th Dr. Fullerton found him down with influenza. His lungs were affected and pleurisy set in. The camp was moved to higher ground, and he was carried there in a litter. On the 26th he was a little better. He sent for Hittu Ram (the " Chronicler ") and talked with him pleasantly, saying that he had thought yesterday that he, too, was departing from this world, like Sir O. St. John ; and that if Baluchistan treated him like Sir Oliver, no officer would willingly come to take charge of it. He was anxious, too, about the arrival in his camp of the Mekran chiefs. But on the next day he was in high fever. Again he spoke with Hittu Ram, saying: "Rai Sahib, I have (58) LAST DAYS 59 been caught as in a net. I feel very uneasy. I cannot recollect having done an injustice to any one for which I should suffer. Mind that no one is tyrannised over." To Hittu Ram it then appeared that Sir Robert had be- come conscious of the approach of the angel of death : his conversation was of eternal separation. All was done for him that could be done, but Sir Robert sank. He spoke little ; but his few words were very courteous and kind to those about him. On the 28th he was a little better. He asked that prayers might be said, and was anxious to say good-night to his staff. But on the 29th he was much weaker. He spoke but little, but once or twice he repeated the text : "If the trumpet give forth an uncertain sound, who shall prepare for battle ? " It may be that he was thinking of his own failing strength, and the battle with the misery of Mekr&n, to which he was no longer equal. In the afternoon he fainted. When he recovered consciousness, he called for the chiefs and his native assistants, raised his hand as they drew near him, and heard and returned their salaams. To Hittu Ram he whispered — "This is our last interview. Give my salaams to all." They touched his hand and withdrew, some with tears running down their cheeks. He fell back on his pillow. The last words that fell from him were " The Baluch people ". At about seven o'clock Robert Sandeman passed away. The grief in the camp was intense. All the Sardars and the camp followers refused to take a morsel of food. On the next day great numbers of them begged that they might see his face once more. This was allowed ; and they passed through the tent where he lay, with his sword and decorations beside him, to make their last salaam to one whose love for them they knew. He was buried at Las Bela on February 1, on a spot where he had held his Durbar in 1889, when he proclaimed the chief. His staff and escort, the chief of Las Bela, the Sardars of Mekrdn and some 1000 persons in all were 60 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN present to see him laid to rest. "Those," says the Chronicler, " who had witnessed the Durbar and now saw his burial on the same spot, were very much astonished and overawed to see the works of Providence — that Sir Robert, who was one day making a speech like a lion at that place in a Durbar among thousands of men, should now be buried there." The Government of India deeply deplored Sir Robert Sandeman's sudden and unexpected death ; and an official Durbar of mourning was held at Sibi. The chiefs and all who attended it expressed their deep sorrow, and determined to erect a memorial to him. Offerings came in freely, and the Sandeman Memorial Hall was erected at Quetta. It is a fine domed building, well suited to its purpose. Once a year the chiefs assemble there and decide, by the usage of the country, as Sir Robert laid down, the matters in dispute between the different tribes. This is one of the great assizes of the country. The other is held at Sibi in winter, in the plains below. The Hall has been the scene of every great Durbar held in Quetta. Viceroys have addressed gatherings there ; but the greatest has been that presided over by His Majesty King George, the present King-Emperor, who, when Prince of Wales, visited Quetta in March, 1906. The Princess, now the Queen-Empress, was with him and witnessed the Durbar from a private gallery. In his address the Prince recalled Sir Robert Sandeman, and all that he had done for Baluchistan. These words went straight to the hearts of those who heard them. Chiefs and the sons of chiefs who had worked for and loved Sir Robert were greatly moved. Nor was Sandeman forgotten in his old district of Dera Ghazi Khan. The faithful Baluch chiefs erected to him there a memorial of their own. The Las Bela chief built a dome over his tomb, and his resting-place there below the Baluch mountains is still carefully tended. The Khan of KaUt expressed profound grief. He was LAST DAYS 61 surprised, he said, that Sir Robert's last resting-place should be in Las Bela. "He should be buried," His Highness continued, " either in his native home or in my dominions. If the Las Bela chief objects, I am prepared to send an army and forcibly convey the body from his territory to Quetta." I doubt if any Mohammedan ruler has ever, before or since, made such a proposal. In my Introduction I claimed for Sir Robert a high and honoured place among our Empire Builders. May I hope that the claim has been made good ? For the value, political and strategical, of Baluchistan to the Empire I would refer the reader to the standard works of Sir Charles Dilke and Sir Alfred Lyall. 1 But Sande- man's aim was not only to secure for the British Common- wealth of nations a position of rightful advantage. He knew the importance of Baluchistan as an outpost of the Empire — none better. But he was moved also by the strong conviction that his work was for the good of the people of Baluchistan; and that it would give them, as he says in one of his letters, " a larger share of happiness in this glorious world of ours ". To his success in this respect there is a cloud of witnesses. He was not, of course, the first in the field. His predecessors at Kalat were brave and able men. But they lacked the oppor- tunity for which Sandeman had to struggle, and at last made for himself. I doubt if there is any part of India where our influence and authority have taken root more kindly and rapidly than they have done in Baluchistan under Sandeman. And yet he had not to deal with fertile plains teeming with Hindu villages, ready to submit to any ruler who might happen to gain power. His work 1 " Problems of Greater Britain," by Sir Charles Dilke, Vol. II. ; *• British Dominion in India," by Sir A. Lyall, Chaps. XVII. to XIX. 62 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN lay in a wide barren region inhabited by fierce peoples, very different from those of the Indian plains. Whether or not he would have been successful in dealing with Afghanistan must always be a matter of conjecture. At one time he was willing to be sent on a mission to the Amir. In whatever dealings he had with the Afghans he showed himself conciliatory and just. He favoured the restoration of Kandahar. He was averse from the piercing of the Khojak railway tunnel, which Amir Abdur Rahman regarded as a knife thrust in his vitals. With his peculiar gifts he might have done much in Afghanistan, and have made the story of our relations with that country very different. But he did not have the opportunity. He had hoped to carry his own methods of friendly conciliation further with the Waziri country. But the prospect ended with his death, and Waziristan has since remained hostile and untameable. Like most successful men he had critics and detractors. His large employment of tribal levies has been called extravagant, organised blackmail, and the like. The criticism is ill-founded. He had no police in the tracts which he administered or supervised. His levies did, and do, much Government work. They are contented and loyal and belong to the people. His police force was confined to cantonments and towns. There was no police oppression in Sandeman's day. Oppression of any sort was hateful to him; and he would have no alien departments playing mischief among his tribesmen. His own men he kept in perfect order. As a high official he was, probably, a mystery to Viceroys until they knew him. Then they recognised his sterling character and work. He never had the gift of writing clearly and expressing, in reasoned sequence, all that he had to say. Baluchistan, when he entered it, was an uncharted country, largely unknown. Sandeman knew its conditions, and expected them to be understood equally well at Calcutta. He was something of a LAST DAYS 63 stumbling-block to distant secretaries. His hand-writ- ing, often almost illegible, did not help matters. Hence his despatches were not always well received. A com- plaint that, instead of answering a specific question, he had telegraphed five pages of irrelevant matter, was probably justified. In these ways Sandeman was a law to himself. He would break every rule of correspond- ence, and seek the aid of any personage whom he knew in support of his plans, which were all in all to him. His tenacity was invincible. He hated red tape, and red tape did not always like him. In later life when he had troublesome telegrams from the Government of India ("ring-tailed roarers" he used to call them), he would leave the framing of the answer to his assistants, after a talk. In work of his own choice he never grew weary. He loved to get to the spot and see things himself. He complains of some of his officers that they will not see that good work means ceaseless labour. There is no doubt that his life was shortened by toil and exposure. A rapid journey from Zhob to the coastal country seems, on paper, a small thing. In fact it meant a dozen long daily marches, sometimes as long as forty miles, with a three days' rail and steamer journey in between. Once in the war he rode eighty miles on each of three con- secutive days. In his dealings with the tribesmen he was quite fear- less. The Chronicler records that he used to travel freely among the Baluch and Pathans and mix with them. M He was in no danger of any sort with them, owing to his own goodwill and pure-mindedness, so much so that they were prepared to sacrifice their lives at his order." His cheery but masterful presence and address appealed to them. Once in his younger days he found that the Murrees, who had come into Jacobabad, were willing enough to pay their respects to the Khan ot Kalat there, but could not stay on longer, as they were without money. Sandeman had no authority at all in 64 SIR ROBERT SANDEMAN the matter, but he was very anxious that they should pay their respects to the Khan. So he had it whispered to the Murree chief that, if one of his men stole that night into his tent, he would find something that might be of use to all of them under his pillow. The man came. Sandeman watched the bearded Baluch lift the tent curtain, felt him grope for the bag of money, and heard him creep away with it, breathing heavily. He used to chuckle at the story afterwards. The visit of ceremony was paid ; but not many men would have taken such a risk. One other instance may be given. Once, when he was without escort in the Murree country, the tribesmen gathered and threatened to carry off his horses. Sandeman came out of his tent, faced the crowd, and dared them to do it. The horses remained. He could not, I think, be called a clever man ; nor was he witty or widely read. His talk abounded in old saws and sayings, and was full of interest when he was on his own ground, where there was no better travelling companion. Kindness and hospitality abounded in him. Ambition he had, but no sort of self-seeking entered into it. His shrewdness was remarkable : none of his plans when put into effect has ended in failure or fiasco. The punitive expeditions, which have been so often necessary on the northern section of the frontier, have been a very small feature in our Baluchistan story. Like most men who have done lasting work in India, he had a mission. His was to pacify a large wild country, and he did it. The Chronicler sums up his career in two pregnant sentences : " Sir Robert Sandeman was not a man of ordinary nature. He was created by God, it would appear, for putting in order the disturbed country of Baluchistan, and as soon as the country was settled God called him to Himself." Few of our countrymen have received or deserved so noble a tribute. Robert Sande- man did both. ABERDEEN: THE UNIVERSITY PRESS UNIVEESITY OF CALIEOENIA LIBEAEY, BEEKELEY THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW expiration of loan period- FEB 10:M 50m- Tti L'8348 449869 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY