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Chiefs of Kandahár, and that there was also a rumour of the Khán of Khiva having entered into an engagement with the Russian Government.

'As Mr. Ellis does not state that he has communicated with your Lordship in Council on the subject of these despatches, copies of them are enclosed for your information.

'The facts above mentioned are clearly indicative of a disposition on the part of the rival Chiefs of Afghánistán to engage the Sháh of Persia in their views of personal aggrandisement; and from the views which the Sháh himself is known to entertain in respect to Herát, there is reason to apprehend that he may be disposed to countenance any scheme which may facilitate the accomplishment of a favourite object of his ambition, encouraged as he doubtless will be by the Russians to extend his influence, and through him their own, in the countries bordering upon our Indian possessions.

'Mr. Ellis mentions, in his letter of February 25, that he suggested to Hájí Husain Alí, the Afghán nobleman from whom he received the particulars of Dost Muhammad's overtures to the Sháh of Persia, the propriety of Dost Muhammad himself opening a communication with the Governor-General of India, and it is therefore probable that before this letter reaches you, you may be in possession of an overture from this chief which will enable you the better to judge as to what steps it may be proper and desirable for you to take to watch more closely, than has hitherto been attempted, the progress of events in Afghánistán, and to counteract the progress of Russian influence in a quarter which, from its proximity to our Indian possessions, could not fail, if it were once established, to act injuriously on the system of our Indian alliances, and possibly to interfere even with the tranquillity of our own territory.

'The mode of dealing with this very important question,