RANJIT SINGH AND HIS WHITE OFFICERS.

THE Sikhs, who became eventually the most powerful nation encountered by us during the conquest and consolidation of the Indian Empire, were in the beginning no more than a weak and persecuted religious community.

Nanak, the founder of their religion, was born in the year 1469, and the name "Sikhs "—literally, learners or disciples-given by him to his followers, became in time the descriptive title of the whole people.

Nanak was succeeded by nine other prophets, the last of whom, Govind Singh, was assassinated in 1708. At the time of Govind Singh's death the Sikhs had become a warlike and powerful people, but they had yet to await the coming of the man who was to weld them into a nation and bestow on them the gift of discipline.

At length, in the year 1780, Ranjit Singh, destined to become a great leader of men, was born at Gujrat, the son of Mahan Singh, chief of one of the least important of the twelve confederacies into which the Sikhs were at that time formed.

Mahan Singh died in 1791, and the young Ranjit Singh, only eleven years of age, would hardly have been per

mitted to arrive at manhood but for the protection given him by two remarkable women. These were his mother, Raj Kour, daughter of Raja Gajpat Singh of Jind; and his mother-in-law, Sada Kour, who had succeeded, as widow and heiress of her husband, to the chiefship of the powerful Kanheya confederacy. This confederacy ranked fourth in importance among the twelve, and Ranjit Singh, having grown up under the protection of its chieftainess, took no rest until he had dispossessed Sada Kour from authority. She died in the year 1827 in the prison to which her ungrateful protégé had consigned her.

Ranjit Singh's treatment of the other cherisher of his youth was yet more ungrateful, for, unless rumour foully belies him, he killed his mother, Raj Kour, with his own hands-following in this action the example left him by his father and grandfather.

It would be wearisome to the reader to trace minutely the measures, alternately violent and treacherous, by which Ranjit Singh gradually brought confederacy after confederacy under his rule, but some notice must be taken of an eventful period in which the young chief seized the golden opportunity of his lifetime.

The city of Lahore, the ancient capital of the Panjab, had been occupied in the years 1797 and 1798 by Shah Zaman, the Afghan invader of Northern India; but in the latter year domestic troubles recalled him somewhat suddenly to his own dominions, and while crossing the river Jhelam in flood he lost twelve pieces of artillery which were imbedded in quicksands. Not being able to

1 Ranjit Singh had married, after the oriental fashion, at the age of six years, Mahtab Kour, daughter of Sada Kour. The title "Kour" means princess.

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tarry until the guns had been extricated, Shah Zaman promised Ranjit Singh, whose inherited territory lay near Lahore, authority to take possession of that city and district from its then rulers, if he would save the imperilled guns (whose possession was at that period a matter of importance) and send them to Afghanistan. Having extricated the guns, Ranjit Singh made short work of capturing Lahore, whereupon he assumed the title of Maharaja, by which he is known in history: moreover, he soon afterwards annexed Amritsar, the religious capital of the Sikhs.

It will be understood that this rapid rise to power of a competent and ambitious ruler, and the consequent consolidation of the Sikhs, could not escape the notice of the English Government; and resulted, in fact, inevitably in the development of political relations between the two Powers, now become neighbours.

In 1809 a mission under Mr (afterwards Lord) Metcalfe effected an alliance between the British and Ranjit Singh, to which the latter honourably adhered during the remainder of his life.

An incident occurred during the visit of Mr Metcalfe's mission which brought home to Ranjit Singh's mind a sense of the true value of discipline, and determined him to form an army on the European system. Among the Sikh troops of 1809 were a turbulent and fanatical set of men known as the Akalis, or Immortals, whose headlong valour had often served Ranjit Singh and turned the fortunes of a doubtful battle. The Akalis, infuriated by the sight of the religious observances of Mr Metcalfe's Hindu escort, suddenly and without the slightest warning made an attack in overwhelming numbers on the camp of

the British mission, which was defended only by two companies of native infantry. Though taken by surprise, the escort quickly rallied and repelled the attack of the Akalis, who incurred the wrath of Ranjit Singh even more for their ignominious defeat than for the inconvenience caused by their misconduct in making the attack. Profiting by this experience, and with the object of raising his own troops to a state of discipline similar to that of the British-Indian army, the Maharaja gave employment to certain deserters from our service, with whose assistance considerable progress was made.

Finally, the absorption, in the year 1820, of the great Kanheya confederacy, removed the last remaining faction of any strength, and left Ranjit Singh free to devote his attention in earnest to the formation of a disciplined army for the now united Sikh nation. With a natural prejudice against Englishmen, the Maharaja proceeded with great caution in the selection of officers to assist him in his task, and it was not until the spring of the year 1822 that the two pioneers of the band of adventurers in the Panjab appeared on the scene. These were the Chevalier Ventura and the Chevalier Allard, officers of the great Napoleon's army, who had served the Emperor with honour and credit, and who, after the fatal day of Waterloo, had wandered to Egypt, and thence successively to Persia, Afghanistan, and the Panjab, in search of fortune.

The arrival at Lahore of Ventura and Allard did not put an immediate end to the difficulties which had attended their journey; for Ranjit Singh was of an extremely suspicious turn of mind, and took some time to assure himself that the two foreigners (who were in a