162 AFGHANISTAN vanced to the relief of Sale at Jelalabad ; but Sale had a few days before completely defeated the investing Afghan army. It was not till July that Lord Ellenborough, now governor general of India, authorized an advance on Cabool, both from Candahar and Jelalabad; and on Sept. 15 Gen. Pollock, after several battles, encamped under the walls of Cabool. On the 17th he was joined by Nott, who had also fought several battles, and had taken and destroyed Ghuzni. Shah Shujah had long before been murdered by some of the chiefs, and since then no regular government had existed in Afghanistan ; nominally, Futteh Jung, his son, was king. Pollock despatched a body of cav- alry after the Oabool prisoners, but these had succeeded in bribing their guard, and met him on the road. As a mark of vengeance, the bazaar of Cabool was destroyed, on which oc- casion the soldiers plundered part of the town and massacred many inhabitants. Oct. 12, the British left Cabool and inarched by Jelalabad and Peshawer to India. Futteh Jung, despair- ing of his position, followed them. Dost Mo- hammed was now dismissed from captivity, and returned to his kingdom. Thus ended the at- tempt of the British to set up a prince of their own making in Afghanistan. Dost Mohammed on his return to Cabool was received with ova- tions as the liberator of Afghanistan both from English and Perso-Russian hostility. As early as 1846 he availed himself of the experience he had gained during his captivity in British India to revive hostilities. Entering into an alliance with his former enemies the Sikhs, he set on foot disturbances in the Punjaub, which were not quelled without much hard fighting. After the battle of Guzerat, however (Feb. 21, 1849), the Sikhs, defeated by the English, were for- saken by the Afghans, and Dost Mohammed with 16,000 of his warriors fled over the Indus. He was not disturbed by the English govern- ment, and after having conquered Balkh (1850) and thus consolidated his forces in the north, he even succeeded in 1854 in subduing Canda- har, and gaining the supremacy in the southern part of the country. He now concluded an offensive and defensive alliance with England, March 30, 1855 ; and goaded on by that power, as well as encouraged in his ambition by the death of Yar Mohammed, the ruler of Herat, he became involved in war with Persia (1856), which ended in the evacuation of Herat (July, 1857) by the Persians, and the appointment of Ahmed as sultan of that country. In January, 1857, Dost Mohammed concluded a new treaty with England. In 1860 the sultan of Herat quar- relled with Dost Mohammed's son ; but on this occasion, as in the following year, in the com- plications with the emir of Bokhara, Dost over- came all difficulties by the exercise of his wont- ed tact and moderation. A new Persian war broke out in 1862 ; but, supported by his Brit- ish allies, Dost Mohammed defeated the sultan of Herat and took possession of that city after a protracted struggle, May 26, 1863. Ahmed, the sultan of Herat, and the tool of Persia and Russia, died shortly before the capture of his capital, and Dost himself survived his victory only a few days, his death occurring May 29, 1863. He bequeathed the throne to his son Shere Ali, who was soon embroiled in a bitter contest for the succession with his brothers and nephews, and Afghanistan was plunged again into anarchy. Helpless against the many pre- tenders to the throne, Shere Ali appealed to the English, but he was regarded by them as an unsafe ally, and Afzul Khan, Shere's half brother, was recognized by Sir John Lawrence, the governor of British India, as the lawful sovereign. Yacub Khan, Shere's son, had suc- ceeded in retaining power at Herat, and sent as- sistance to his father, who, however, was disap- pointed in his hope of making the Persians his allies against his antagonists. In October, 1867, however, he succeeded in gathering an army of 17,000 men, chiefly through the mone- tary assistance accorded to him by the widow of Feis Mohammed of Balkh. On April 1, 1868, he took possession of Candahar, and in January, 1869, he achieved a decided victory at Ghuzni over his half brother Azim and his nephew Abd-ul-Rahman. In July, 1869, the pretenders rose anew on the boundaries of Turkistan ; but Azim Khan, the most mis- chievous of them, died in October, 1869, and the Anglo-Indian government, afraid of Russia, which was all the time accused of a design to use Persian supremacy over Herat for her own designs on India, now came over to the side of Shere Ali. Earl Mayo, the new gover- nor general of India, entered into a formal alli- ance with him, recognizing him as the legitimate sovereign of Afghanistan. At the instigation of England, the upper Oxus was at the same time fixed upon as the boundary line between Afghanistan and Bokhara (a country virtually ruled by Russian influence), and a treaty to that effect was concluded and signed in January, 1871. By bringing the difficulties between these countries to a close, Great Britain hoped to ar- rest the progress of Russia. Shere Ali, how- ever, was still distrusted by his kinsmen, the pretenders to his throne. On Sept. 21, 1870, his own son Yacub rose in revolt against his father, because the latter, owing to a palace intrigue, resolved to appoint his second son Abdullah Jaw successor to the throne, in the place of Yacub. In March, 1871, the fortress of Gurian fell into the hands of Yacub, and hi May he even took possession of Herat. A protracted war between father and son was now expected, but through British diploma- cy a reconciliation took place in June, in con- seqence of which Yacub was appointed gov- ernor of Herat. Afghan Language and Litera- tim-. Afghan is a Persian word. The term Vilayet is applied by the people themselves to their country, and signifies the original land of ancestors. They also designate it as Cabulistan, and by other appellations. The in- habitants call themselves Pushtaneh or Pukh-
