With regard to the second point under discussion, the Envoy stated that 20,000 stand-of-arms were desired, laying very particular stress on 5,000 Sniders being included in this number, and that hopes were entertained by the Amir that he would be largely assisted with money.  In answer to this, the Saiyad was told that there was not then a sufficient reserve supply of Sniders for the English troops in India, and that it was impossible to spare more than 5,000 Enfields; that this number should at once be placed at the Amir’s disposal, and that the remainder should be forwarded as soon as they were received from England.  He was further informed that five lakhs of rupees (exclusive of the five lakhs promised the year before, as indemnification for the loss of territory) would be given to Sher Ali.

A final letter from the Viceroy was sent to the Amir through Saiyad Nur Mahomed, dated 6th September, 1873, summing up the result of the conference.  His Highness was told, with reference to a fear expressed by the Envoy lest Russia should press for the establishment of a Russian Mission and agents in Afghanistan, that Prince Gortschakoff had officially intimated that, while he saw no objection to British officers going to Kabul, he engaged that Russian agents should abstain from doing so, and that, far from apprehending a Russian invasion of Afghanistan, the British Government believed that the effect of the recent arrangements had been to render the occurrence of such a contingency more remote than ever.  At the same time, being desirous of seeing the Amir strong and his rule firmly established, the Government were prepared to give him any reasonable assistance.

Sher Ali was greatly annoyed and disappointed at the result of his Envoy’s visit to Simla.  He was of a very impulsive, passionate disposition; his reply to the Viceroy’s letter was discourteous and sarcastic; he declined to receive a British officer at Kabul, and although he condescended to accept the arms presented to him, he left the ten lakhs of rupees untouched in the Peshawar treasury.  Colonel Valentine Baker, who was at that time travelling through Central Asia, was forbidden by the Amir to pass through Afghanistan on his way to India; and a few months later he refused to allow Sir Douglas Forsyth’s Mission to return to India by way of Afghanistan.

[Footnote 1:  We lived in this house whenever we were in Simla, till we left it in 1892.  It has since been bought by Government for the Commander-in-Chief’s residence.]

[Footnote 2:  General Sir Frederick Goldsmid, K.C.M.G.]

[Footnote 3:  Major-General Sir Frederick Pollock, K.C.S.I.]

[Footnote 4:  Sir Donald Macnabb, K.C.S.I., then Commissioner of Peshawar.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLI. 1873-1877

A trip in the Himalayas—­The famine in Behar —­The Prince of Wales in India—­Farewell to Lord Napier