by Craig Murray
Mohan Lal was writing for a Victorian British audience, but it seems pretty clear that ‘treated her rudely in other ways’, means at least sexual molestation, particularly combined with ‘profaned robe’. A contemporary British historian said she was ‘dishonoured’.5
The princess – nobody recorded her name – was the King’s daughter, the full sister of Crown Prince Kamran and, in the world of Royal Dourani inter-marriage, first wife to the King’s nephew. Mohammed Khan Barakzai had insulted the entire khail of the Saduzais’ in the most profound way possible. The consequences were immense.
Futth Khan was to be first blinded then tortured to death by a vengeful Shah Mahmoud and his son Kamran. It gives some idea of the enormous complexity of the Afghan civil wars that Futth Khan had previously blinded Mahmoud’s brother Zeman to set Mahmoud on the throne, while Zeman had himself earlier blinded and murdered Futth Khan’s father Sirafrauz Khan.6 Into this vicious feuding in distant Afghanistan was the young Alexander destined to be thrust.
CHAPTER THREE
Scottish Patronage, Indian Career
James Burnes turned to his childhood friend Joseph Hume for patronage for his sons. Hume had returned from a career in the East India Company with the fortune that had enabled him to become an influential figure in politics. He had clout with the EIC, where the directors were permitted to nominate young men to cadetships. Now MP for Aberdeen, and later with James’ help MP for Montrose, Hume was able to help two of James’ sons. This was a well-trodden career path. As Sir Walter Scott put it, the EIC was ‘the Corn Chest for Scotland where we poor gentry must send our youngest sons’.1
The post of civilian writer was the most coveted starting position available. These positions carried high salaries and offered extraordinary opportunities for corruption. An inquiry at the time of the renewal of the EIC’s charter in 1813 had found that appointments to a writership were being sold on for around £3,500, a very large sum.2
An appointment as a cadet to the army of the East India Company was less attractive though still valuable. Salaries were lower and there was less chance to supplement your income through corruption. Promotion could be very slow. But there were opportunities for those with skill and industry, and always the prospect of prize money from the loot of some Indian town. It was an opportunity to become an army officer without purchasing your commission, still required in the regular army. So the family seized on Joseph Hume’s offer to find a cadetship for fifteen-year-old Alexander, and he was sent to London to prepare. At least he would be joining James, a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, then the world’s most advanced medical school, who was in his second year of specialist Indian medical study at Guy’s and St Thomas in London, preparatory to joining the Company’s surgeon corps.
The opportunity came suddenly. On 6 March 1821 the boy was put on a Dundee smack, the fastest passenger transport between north-east Scotland and London. There were several competing companies, at least two of which had several sailings a week from Dundee. Fares ranged from £2 12s 6d cabin class to £1 1s deck class.3 Nine days later Alex was met at Hoare’s Wharf by Joseph Hume and taken to his home. The next day, Joseph took him to meet Stanley Clarke, a director of the EIC, who was willing to nominate him for the Company’s Bombay army.
Alexander wrote two remarkable letters home, which tell us a great deal about his preparations for India.
Mrs Burnes
James Burnes Esq
Writer4
Montrose
London March 1821
My Dear Mother,
[…] I have spent a week in Chingford; instead of being only ten miles from London you would rather suppose a hundred, for we did not meet a human soul until we arrived at Uncle David’s house, there is neither schoolmaster, doctor, lawyer, banker, taylor or any other business except farmers and vintners – uncle David performs the office of Mr Rintoul, and Aunt Glegg that of Mr Beattie5
[…] My nature would not allow me to stop in the house, for I explored all the surrounding neighbourhood in which I found a hunting seat of Queen Elizabeth’s near Epping Forest, now inhabited by the forester
[…] My detention and that of James for two months would perhaps astonish you, and more so on account of my sudden departure, but […] the advantages which will accrue from my attending Dr Gilchrist, I have no doubt will satisfy you.
James introduced me to Dr Gilchrist […] I am to commence attending his classes on Tuesday first […] by so doing, in this country I may acquire the principles of the language and in India how to speak it.
James and I dined at Mr Hume’s on Sunday last. What had induced you all to think I had a rough passage up I know not, for there was never a more pleasant passage performed and I would be perfectly satisfied with such weather in our passages out, but that cannot be expected because the fate of poor Paterson’s vessel off the Cape shews what weather we have to expect […]
There is one fortunate thing […] a vessel is set to sail for Bombay about the middle of May, commanded as Dr Gilchrist told us by a friend of his – and Mr and Mrs Gilchrist will be able to get James appointed surgeon, and as the passage money is moderate, we should perhaps be able to save all now living in London.
On Saturday we received through Mr Hume a letter from Lord Gillies, enclosing one to Governor Elphinstone I here send you a copy of his Lordship’s letter
Edin Mar 21 1821
My Dear Sir,
I have the pleasure of sending you enclosed a letter of introduction in favour of you and your brother from Admiral Fleming to his brother Mr Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay […]
I applied to Admiral Fleming in consequence of a letter from your father, asking me whether I had any friends at Bombay to recommend you to them. I have no friends there and have not the honour of knowing Gov. Elphinstone but his brother the Admiral is a friend of mine. This letter I trust will be useful.
Believe me yours very truly,
Ld. Gillies
To James Burnes
Assistant Surgeon in the service of the East India Company
So if we do not get forward it will not be for want of recommendatory letters […]
Believe me
Your Truly Affectionate Son
Alex Burnes
PS I hope you make them feed the hawk and crow and also take care of the tulips and other flowers I had.
NB William Ross has my Greek dictionary which you can get from him when he’s done with it but not till then for you know well the circumstances of his father.6
James Burnes Esq
Writer Montrose
London April 1st 1821
My Dear Father,
This being your birthday I take up my pen to express James’s wishes and mine for your health and happiness – and as the four of your sons are now separated from you, your health was not here and I suppose not at home omitted – would that my birthday had come for from that day I hope never to be a burden to anyone.
Fortunately my birthday happens on Wednesday which is account day so I will be entitled to pay the very day I am sixteen. Remember Burns when my birthday comes
‘That request permit me here
When yearly ye assemble
One round I ask it with a tear
To him the son that’s favoured’
I am astonished by your silence for except a few lines from [Shannon?] and a letter from you returning the certificates, I have not received a scrap from father, mother or brother.
Mr Hume has given me a state of James’ expenditure in London which I now transmit you […]
James amounts to £84 and mine to £101 odd, but the reason for the disparity is my getting all my accoutrements such as sword, cap and so in London, which James had not. This is really a great sum, but the amount which you intended to send up for James alone makes me suppose you will think this moderate. I cannot yet tell you exactly how much it will cost to land us in India as there may yet be some things required here, but by the statement you sent there
appear to be in the hands of Mr Hume about £145 so our equipment will amount to £40 more. £200 will equip us both, after which the expense of our living in London since I arrived (for James paid Mr Scroggie about a week ago all demands) and the passage money (which we do not yet know but will be informed of it as soon as James sees the captain of the Sarah) must be paid – these demands (altho’ comparatively speaking moderate) will perhaps startle you. Should ever the fickle goddess Fortune shine upon me it will also afford me much pleasure to repay you all my expenses.
From a book, called The Cadet’s Guide to India […] it appears that a cadet (which I do not hope to be for long) can live comfortably and yet save £120 per annum, but my desire in going to India never was a lust after money, but to lead a comfortable […] life in a delightful country from which I hope to return after some years with a competency.
It would give me very much pleasure if it were in your power to assist Mr Christian in getting a situation of the same kind he is now trying for […] for he is a very clever, deserving young man, and I am sure will give satisfaction to whatever situation he is appointed.
[…] I went for the first time to Dr Gilchrist, and […] the language […] doesn’t appear so difficult as I was at first led to imagine […]
On account of the great distance Mr Scroggie’s is from Dr Gilchrist’s classroom, Dr Gilchrist and Mr Hume have both recommended me to remove to No. 8 Buckingham St, Strand, where Dr Gilchrist’s pupils meet daily and where I am boarded for 25s per week so that all letters you send me thro’ Mr Hume can be directed as above. Are you to send the Montrose newspaper while I am in London or only when I go to India? I should like it in both places. Mr Hume says when you send them to India they should go in parcels.
Expecting soon to hear from you,
Believe me,
Your Truly Affectionate Son,
Alex Burnes7
Joseph Hume was acting like family, looking after the brothers, receiving their mail, inviting them to dinner, handling their accounts, advancing money where required and effecting useful introductions. Dr Gilchrist was the foremost British Hindu scholar of his day, and had invented the then most widely followed transcription of Hindi sounds into English letters. It was not compulsory for new cadets to take private lessons in Hindi before travel to India, but most did as command of languages was a recognised path to professional advancement.
The Cadet’s Guide to India’s opening sentence reads: ‘Before entering into details, let me caution parents or guardians against sending young men to India without letters of introduction […]’ It was, in polite society, an impropriety to speak to someone to whom you had not been formally introduced. With an introduction to the Governor or Commander-in-Chief from somebody on an equivalent social level, a cadet could be confident of receiving at least one invitation to a social function, which is why such letters were known in Company slang as ‘soup tickets’.8 From there a wider circle of senior people might take an interest in a cadet’s career. Without such connections a cadet might languish in his quarters.
Alex had such letters from Joseph Hume himself. There was a striking willingness among Scots to give a hand up to fellow Scots. It was good of Admiral Fleming (he had changed his surname to inherit an estate)9 to provide the Burnes brothers with a letter of introduction to his brother Mountstuart Elphinstone, at the request of his friend Lord Gillies. Adam Gillies of Brechin was a senior Scottish judge, whom James knew in that capacity and as a part of the Radical interest in Forfarshire. This was how the Scots network functioned. The key boost to Alexander’s career was to be given by Sir John Malcolm, of whom it had been complained: ‘Malcolm like a true good Scotchman, has a happy knack at discerning the special merits of those born north of the Tweed.’10
The cost of equipping his sons was a substantial burden for James senior - £200 would have been half a year’s income for most Scottish country lawyers in 1821. The Cadet’s Guide gives a very long minimum outfitting list:
4 dozen frilled calico shirts
1½ ditto Night-shirts
4 pair white cotton half-hose
8 pair Web Pantaloon Drawers
2½ dozen Towels
2 pair Flannel Drawers
1 Flannel Dressing-gown
1½ dozen single Night-caps
4 Black Silk Neck-handkerchiefs
3 pair strong stout Gloves
Foraging Cap to wear on board ship
A round Hat to land in on arrival
Sea Cot with two Cot Screws
Hair Mattress
2 Feather Pillows
8 Pillow-cases
4 pair full-sized sheets
1 pair Blankets11
The list goes on a lot further.
We can trace from these letters three qualities which were to be the mark of the young Alex. Firstly, ‘My nature would not allow me to stop in the house, for I explored all the surrounding neighbourhood.’ Secondly, on first encountering Urdu or Persian he says ‘it doesn’t appear so difficult’!
The third is kindness. For a fifteen-year-old he spends a lot of time thinking about others. Alex is concerned for the impecunious Willie Ross, for ‘poor Paterson’, whose family is always close to distress and for Mr Christian who needs a position as a schoolteacher. And Alex is very concerned about the financial costs that James and he are causing. He is glad he will no longer be a financial burden on the family. In fact, money worries run here as a theme, affecting all the named families, portraying Montrose as a community under stress.
Alex was homesick and upset he had not been receiving letters from his family. All his references to home reflect nothing but fondness: he is worried about his plants and pets, concerned about schoolfriends. He wanted the Montrose Review. While the Alexander Burnes who left for India was remarkably self-possessed, he was also just a homesick fifteen-year-old boy.
The five-month voyage out to India, around the Cape of Good Hope, could be hazardous. The Emma, on which Paterson had sailed, was a privately-owned India packet of 467 tons. It had gone down in Table Bay in a hurricane, on 4 January 1821, along with the Dorah of Calcutta. Fortunately there were no casualties, the ships having been abandoned.12 A future colleague of Burnes, Henry Durand, lost all his possessions on his passage in 1828 when the Lady Holland struck Dassan island.13
Alex had to pass an examination to be admitted as a cadet and sat it, as was usual, on his sixteenth birthday, 16 May 1821. There were also a number of declarations required as part of Pitt’s reforms aimed at reducing corruption in the Company. The docket survives in the East India Company’s military records.14
To the Honourable Court of Directors of the United East India Company
The humble petition of Alexander Burnes
Sheweth, that your petitioner is desirous of entering the Military Service of the Company, as a Cadet for the Bombay Establishment to which he has been nominated by William Clarke Esq, at the recommendation of Joseph Hume Esq, and should he be so fortunate as to appear to your Honours eligible for that station, promises to conduct himself with fidelity and honour.
That your Petitioner has been furnished with the Articles of War, has read the Terms, and also the Resolution of the Court of the 9th August 1809, to which he promises to conform; as also to all the Rules[…] which have been […] established by the Honourable Court […]
And your Petitioner, as in duty bound, will ever pray.
Alexr. Burnes
Director’s Nomination
I William Stanley Clarke Esq., being one of the Directors of the East India Company […] do declare, that I have inquired into the character, connexions and qualifications of Mr Alexander Burnes and that in my opinion he is a fit person to petition the East-India Company for the appointment he now herein solicits.
Recommended to me by Joseph Hume Esq.
Wm Stanley Clarke East India House
Examined and Passed the 16th May 1821 by John Morris
Examination
[…]
; 7. Do you believe that any person has received, or is to receive, any pecuniary consideration, or anything convertible, in any mode, into a pecuniary benefit, on account of your nomination?
No – Certainly Not
8. Are you aware, that if it should be hereafter discovered, that your appointment has been obtained by improper means, you will be dismissed, and rendered ineligible to hold any situation in the Company’s service again?
Yes.
Alexander Burnes
There is also a copy of Alexander’s baptism record and a sworn statement from both his father and from Joseph Hume that no money had changed hands.
The twenty-year-old James was entering as an assistant surgeon, so went through a different process. In December 1820 the distinguished Scottish surgeon W J Chambers gave James a certificate from Guy’s Hospital that he was ‘qualified in physic to serve as an Assistant Surgeon at any of the Company’s presidencies in the East Indies’. James then had to make his declarations before the Lord Mayor of London, which he did on 7 March 1821. James’ nomination was from Robert Hempsall, another director.15 Hume had been calling in favours.
It is worth noting one other cadet who joined that year. Nine days after Alexander, George LeGrand Jacob arrived at Leadenhall, the day after his sixteenth birthday which had fallen on a Sunday. He was nominated by the Scots director James Pattison, and his father was noted as ‘a gentleman residing on his estate at Guernsey’. Jacob was to travel out with the Burnes brothers, and become Alexander’s closest friend.
We have no record of Alexander and James’ voyage, but many others recorded their impressions. Sleeping quarters for a cadet were typically little more than a plank about fourteen inches wide, in a tiny room with five others. An industrious cadet had five months to study his Indian languages and to ask questions of the old hands. Sir John Malcolm, returning to India as Governor of Bombay, entranced the young cadet Henry Rawlinson with endless anecdotes. Fellow cadets had an intense bonding experience at sea, as Alexander with George Jacob.