narrow way-and lo! the assailants are literally blown into the air.

These Memoirs, published just half a century after the event, corroborate the conclusion formed by many, as I remember, after the first Sikh war in 1845-46. On the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839, Sikh rule in the Panjab became an impossibility. The members of a brave but unruly confederacy, extending over the Land of the Five Rivers, had been united and held together by the rough genius of Ranjit Singh, but never welded nor consolidated. He was not statesman enough for such consolidation, being merely a rude organiser, and a fighting commander without being a soldier in any higher sense. On his death it became, from Gardner's narrative, clearer than ever that there were four parties clutching with lethal violence at each other's throats-the Court party, the so-called blood princes, the Dogras (Dhyan Singh and Gulab Singh), and the Sindhanwala chiefs. Above all was an unmanageable army acknowledging no power but its own. The destruction of all these elements, the one by the other, was about happening when the first Sikh war broke out. On a retrospect we may almost regret that the British Government

could not then annex the country, the native rule
having become demonstrably impossible. That
would have saved all the bloodshed in the second
war. As it was, a further respite was allowed in
the hope of better things. But the fire of disturb-
ance burst forth worse than ever. The second war
had to be undertaken, and after that the annex-
ation of the Panjab became inevitable.
one should doubt the ultimate necessity of that
annexation, let him consult these Memoirs of

Gardner.

If any

RICHARD TEMPLE.

་

UNIV. OF

VINNQUIVO

COLONEL ALEXANDER GARDNER.

CHAPTER I.

THE MAN AND HIS WRITINGS.

MR FREDERICK COOPER AND COLONEL GARDNER

SIR LEPEL GRIFFIN - MR EDGEWORTH'S ABSTRACT OF COLONEL GARDNER'S JOURNAL-SIR HENRY YULE AND SIR HENRY RAWLINSON-MR NEY ELIAS-SIR HENRY DURAND'S 'LIFE OF A SOLDIER OF THE OLDEN TIME,

In the hot weather of the year 1864 the Government of India deputed, as was then the annual custom, an officer to the valley of Kashmir to act as referee between the large body of English visitors and the subjects of his Highness the reigning Maharaja.

The officer selected for duty on this occasion was Mr Frederick Cooper-a man well known in his day for a terrible act of severity performed

A

2

THE MAN AND HIS WRITINGS.

by him in the execution of his duty during the suppression of the great mutiny of the Indian

army.

Mr Cooper was a man of talent and imagination, and while making such inquiries concerning the affairs of Kashmir as seemed to him a desirable preliminary to the performance of his new duties, he heard for the first time of the existence at Srinagar of an old European commandant of the name of Gardner.

Feeling sure that the conversation of this veteran would supply information of great interest concerning the history, manners, and customs of Kashmir, Mr Cooper lost no time in requesting the old adventurer, who bore the rank of commandant or colonel of artillery, to favour him with a visit.

The desired visit was speedily paid, and Mr Cooper's description of his new acquaintance, written down at the time, presents to us the hero of the following narrative of travel and adventure.

"The old colonel," he writes, "while on the verge of his eightieth year, had a gait as sturdy and a stride as firm as a man of fifty. Some six feet in height, he usually wore a tartan-plaid

GARDNER AS HE APPEARED TO MR COOPER. 3

-а

suit, purchased apparently from the quartermaster's stores of one of the Highland regiments serving in India. In consequence of a severe wound in the neck, received in battle many years before, the old commandant had long been unable to eat solid food; he had, moreover, lost from age nearly all his teeth. The photograph "—a copy of which forms the frontispiece of this work-" while indicating the outline of the countenance, gives but a dim idea of the vivacity of expression, the play of feature, the humour of the mouth, and the energy of character portrayed by the whole aspect of the man as he described the arduous and terrible incidents of a long life of romance and vicissitude.

"The English he spoke was quaint, graphic, and wonderfully good considering his fifty years of residence among Asiatics.

"In the course of our first conversation I discovered the stores of experience, adventure, and observation which the old man could unfold; his memory, too, except as to precise dates, I found singularly tenacious. He complained of the loss

and abstraction at various times of his manuscripts. A whole volume, which contained an account of his visit to Kafiristan, perished at