them said, 'look a Native fairly in the face again.' But India had to pay the full price, not only of the reckless policy proclaimed in October 1838, but of the victorious reprisals announced in October 1842. And our latest victories had served only to deepen the hatred felt by every honest Afghán towards the invaders of his native land. To the bitter memories of the past four years Lord Ellenborough was nearly adding another. He had already proclaimed his intention to set Dost Muhammad, his family, and all other Afghán prisoners, free; but the Amír was at first commanded to present himself at the Governor-General's Darbár in the camp at Firozpur. Happily the popular outcry shamed his Lordship into revoking a decree so unworthy of a strong English governor, so insulting to the throneless exile who, during his brief stay in Calcutta, had been treated by Lord Auckland as an honoured guest. Dost Muhammad was allowed to return without conditions to the country where his son Akbar was already ruling in the place of the young Saduzai Prince Sháhpur, who had just fled for safety to Pesháwar. On taking leave of the Governor-General, the Amír was asked his opinion of the English in India. 'I have been struck,' he answered, 'with the magnitude of your power and your resources, with your ships, your arsenals, and your armies; but I cannot understand why the rulers of so great an empire should have gone across the Indus to deprive me of my poor and barren country[1].'
- ↑ Afghan Papers; Kaye; Marshman.
