Sikunder Burnes

by Craig Murray

  The employment of Lieut. Burnes has another recommendation – it will be attended by little expense. He may perhaps have an officer with him and two or three servants but his guard will be people of the country he visits and is familiar with. He presses such on the justest grounds […] they disarm that jealousy which the appearance of our troops excites. They form also a means of contacts with the natives of the districts through which he has to pass. With respect to any personal allowance Lieut Burnes is satisfied with what he has and never has […] raised a question upon that subject, being much more anxious to obtain reputation than money.

  Malcolm continues:

  Should serious setbacks oppose the progress of Lieut Burnes beyond Hyderabad and yet the Ameers be willing to allow the presents to go on I should take care that he is accompanied by native surveyors, in the character of servants, whose fidelity could be relied upon and who were quite equal to make a good report of the river and the countries they passed.

  Malcolm and Pottinger had since 1828 been involved in training a group of Indians in secret surveying and conveying of messages and maps. Burnes would be accompanied on all his successive travels by such Indian surveyors, usually disguised as domestic servants or fellow travellers. They would branch off to survey neighbouring districts or topographical features, and this accounts for the great volume of ground covered by Burnes. This type of secret surveying was being undertaken some thirty years before the date generally noted as the establishment of the corps of pundits.18

  One of the native surveyors selected to accompany Burnes was Mohammed Ali, appointed sub-assistant surveyor. He was paid a monthly salary of Rs45 and field allowance of Rs85 while on mission.19 That was higher than the most senior Company native NCOs and reflects the danger of the job and the skill and status of the corps of local surveyors.

  While Alexander was selected in India to be the agent who kicked off the Great Game, Ellenborough had chosen a young cavalry officer to tackle the same task from the other end. Arthur Conolly had been in England on leave, and was now asked to return overland, from St Petersburg to Calcutta via Persia, to check out the Russian advance dispositions. The careers of Conolly and Burnes were to run parallel for the next decade, and take on an oppositional aspect.

  In Calcutta, Bentinck’s most senior adviser, Sir Charles Metcalfe, was out of sympathy with all this spying. On 25 October 1830 he wrote a minute attacking the entire plan, arguing that ‘we ought not wantonly to offend intermediate states, by acts calculated to rouse hostile feelings against us, but rather to cultivate friendly dispositions […]’20 The scheme for sending the horses up the Indus was a dangerous ruse which could provoke a war, ‘It is a trick in my opinion unworthy of our government, which cannot fail when detected, as most probably it will be, to excite the jealousy and indignation of the powers on whom we play it.’ Metcalfe added that twenty years earlier, fear of a French invasion had been the great ‘bugbear’ and the Russian scare was no more realistic.

  However, Ellenborough and Malcolm had the bit between their teeth as surely as dray horses. On 30 November 1830, Burnes received his marching orders from Malcolm:

  The Honorable the Governor-in-Council, being desirous of obtaining full and correct information regarding the navigation of the River Indus and the chiefs and tribes possessing the territories on its banks, has resolved to employ you on the prosecution of that design […]

  The plan adopted will be to dispatch from hence […] a large carriage which is intended as a present to Runjeet Singh and in charge of which you will proceed up the river Indus. The ultimate destination of the package to be kept secret, until the boats which may be required shall have sailed from Mandavee when letters to the Ameers of Scinde will be despatched, but so as to arrive too late to prevent the receipt of any answer having for its object the prevention of the mission […]

  The depth of water in the Indus, the direction and breadth of the stream – its facilities for steam navigation, the supply of fuel on its banks, and the condition of the princes and people who possess the country bordering on it, are all points of the highest interest to the Governor in Council […] [your] slow progress […] will […] give you every opportunity to pursue your researches.

  The Governor General is now in the Upper Provinces of Bengal: you will therefore on proceeding beyond Hyderabad open a communication with the Secretary with his Lordship, and act according to such instructions as you may receive from him […]

  A dray horse and four dray mares have arrived from England as presents from the Honorable the Court of Directors to Runjeet Singh; those shall be forwarded as soon as they shall have had sufficient rest after their voyage […] it will not however be necessary for you to delay your departure from Kutch on that account.21

  So the carriage was viewed as the gift, and Ellenborough’s carthorses an optional extra. The present of a carriage was commonplace – Mountstuart Elphinstone had given Ranjit Singh one in 1809.22 Malcolm stipulated to Pottinger that while suppression of the Thar and Parkar bandits was the diplomatic pretext for calling in at Haidarabad, discussions on this point must not be allowed to delay the survey.23 Burnes took meticulous note of all this instruction. But his overwhelming feeling was of delight; his cherished proposals for the exploration of the north-west frontier were coming true, and he was off on the journey – and career opportunity – of a lifetime.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Shipwreck of Young Hopes

  Burnes was selected for the Indus mission because he had over six years impressed his superiors. He had done so on active service with the Cutch Field Force and then in undertaking the provisioning and carriage of the 8,000 strong Sinde Field Force. He had carried out a series of geographical, geological and surveying operations, and produced maps which greatly increased the knowledge of important lands immediately on the Empire’s frontier. Finally he had accomplished, with Holland, the sensitive exploration of the land and resources of important Indus territories. He had been aided in all this by his achievement of proficiency in the Hindustani and Persian languages.

  He had shown initiative in getting permission for these activities, and then bureaucratic assiduity in producing reports, statistics and beautifully drawn maps to make these labours useful to government. Alexander Burnes was, with good reason, the rising star of the Bombay Presidency.

  Bentinck agreed with Malcolm’s proposed arrangements for the dray horse mission, although with what reservations is unknown as Malcolm told his Secret Committee he had mislaid Bentinck’s letter. Bentinck was replying to Malcolm’s self-exculpation for having sent Burnes trespassing all over Bengal territory, perhaps in terms Malcolm did not want broadcast.

  Malcolm told the committee:

  I had several communications with Lieut Burnes as to the aid he might require. He had no wish but that a young officer might accompany him who might he thought be in many cases useful […] He concurred with me that Ensign Leckie of the 22nd was from youth, good constitution and temper quite suited for this service.1

  Malcolm had hit upon another deserving young Scotsman. Launching the mission was the last significant act of Malcolm’s Indian career, as he left Bombay for good on 5 December 1830, to be replaced by John Fitzgibbon, the Earl of Clare, who took over on 21 March 1831. Clare notoriously had shared an intense schoolboy passion with Byron. Remarkably Clare was to accuse Malcolm of deliberately impeding his arrival.2 Burnes lost an important sponsor at a crucial moment. In the interim General Beckwith was Acting Governor General for a fortnight before dying of fever. John Romer then took over temporarily. So Burnes was without consistent support from Bombay.

  The dray horses, now in Bombay, were grazing for a month under Leckie’s supervision, recovering from their long sea voyage. Burnes was at Mandvi, the port of Cutch, arranging shipping.

  Pottinger believed ‘The construction of the boats in question is particularly favorable for the transportation of the horses, and they can either be covered in; or left open above as the tempera
ture and climate may render desirable […]’3 Regrettably this is the only surviving snippet on the management of the horses. They were certainly resilient, but we know nothing of their routine of food, grooming, mucking out or exercise, or if Burnes visited or talked to them.

  Typically, in the midst of these preparations Burnes managed to conclude a report for the Bombay Asiatic Society of an archaeological survey he had conducted of the great Temple of Somnath.4 On 30 December Leckie was ordered to sail to Mandvi from Bombay with the horses, and given an allowance of Rs800 for immediate personal expenses.5

  The Amirs of Sind had seen the frontiers of British rule move steadily towards them. In 1808 Captain David Seton, British Resident at Muscat, had concluded a treaty of trade and mutual defence with the Amirs, only for it to be repudiated by the Governor-General Lord Minto. The following year, one of Napoleon’s generals, Gardane, was in Tehran promoting a joint Franco-Persian attack on India through Herat. Minto sent embassies to Persia, Afghanistan, Sind and Lahore to shore up diplomatically British India’s north-west frontiers. Mountstuart Elphinstone, Envoy to Shah Shuja of Afghanistan, had floated the idea that Britain purchase for £200,000 the sovereignty of Sind, arguing that, unlike Shuja, Britain had the military muscle to subjugate the Amirs and would thus secure a firm border on the Indus. The Amirs learnt of this and saw the British were insincere.

  On 28 January 1831 Burnes and Leckie set sail from Mandvi with a small fleet of native boats plus a British cutter.6 I visited Mandvi port and went around the local shipyards, where large wooden boats are still constructed, though now fitted with an engine. They are substantial vessels, constructed around a framework of enormous hewn beams. As in Burnes’ day, they conduct coastal trade in the Persian Gulf, Red Sea and East Africa. Many of the builders I met knew of Alexander Burnes, and all claimed their families had sailed with him.7 Alice Albinia had a similar experience on the Indus, where she found detailed knowledge of Burnes’ visits among local boatmen.8 Burnes left a positive impression. In 1858 George Jacob, as a General, was to visit Mandvi where: ‘The Lukput came out to meet me […] an intelligent man, of pleasing manners: he had accompanied Burnes to Sind: repeated several of his sayings, and spoke highly of him.’9

  Pottinger wrote to Romer to inform him that Burnes had started. He pointed out that at this time of year the journey up the Indus would be particularly slow, as the river was low, and the wind contrary. He had provided the expedition with a small ‘bunder [harbour] boat’, carrying twenty-four oars. It ‘will always put it in Mr Burnes’ power to sound or even measure the river on various pretences, such as going out in her to fish or shoot or look for a better channel for his fleet’.10

  Burnes had decided on no escort. He viewed the venture as hazardous, but argued that ‘no escort of any moderate detail could provide the necessary protection, and at my urgent request, I entered upon it […] believing that we could trust to the natives of the country and form […] a link of communication with the country that could allay suspicion’.11 This was brave, and unusual – both Malcolm and Elphinstone had gone on their 1809 missions with escorts of 400 Company troops. Burnes was right that an escort puts a distance between you and the communities you encounter, and reduces your information gathering potential. Burnes’ non-threatening demeanour was essential to his success.

  He had also decided to travel with very little money, but rather carried hundis, or bills of exchange, to be drawn on local merchants who operated as informal bankers.12 It displays the sophistication of the indigenous commercial system that Burnes could set off beyond British India carrying little cash. Burnes’ hundis were to be drawn in:

  Tatta Rs1,500

  Hyderabad Rs2,000

  Shikarpur Rs1,500

  Bhawalpur Rs1,500

  Multan Rs2,000

  This would involve a number of different currencies,13 again evidence of the sophistication of the system. Pottinger wrote to Romer apologising for the loss to the Company from the exchange transactions.14

  In addition to the carriage and carthorses the party also carried presents for rulers to be met on the route. In Montrose Museum survives the packing list of the presents for the Amirs of Sind:

  List of Packages

  No. 1

  2 Maps of the Globe in Persian

  2 Ditto of Hindoostan in Persian

  2 Books of Umvari Sohilee in Persian

  No. 2

  1 Table Clock

  No. 3

  2 Pairs English Shawls (yellow and white)

  1 Gold Hunting Watch with Chain, 2 seals and 2 keys

  2 Telescopes

  14 Scissors

  4 Razors

  4 Penknives

  No. 4

  1 Double Barrelled Gun in Case

  No 5

  1 Pair Single ditto Pistols ditto

  No 6

  1 Piece of Superfine Thick Scarlet Cloth being 20½ yards

  1 Ditto Ditto Black 18¼ yards

  No 7

  2 Pairs cut Glass candle sticks with drops

  No 8

  4 Coloured Table Shades for Ditto

  (Signed) R Money

  Actg Pr Secy to Govt.15

  Pottinger warned Burnes to be cautious:

  I cannot allow myself to suppose […] that the Ameers of Sinde will refuse to allow you a passage […] but […] you are fully apprized of the necessity for being most careful that no act of yours, such as frequently and openly sounding and measuring the river, surveying the banks as you pass, or even writing too much in public, should excite their suspicions.16

  Pottinger had arranged for Pitumba Thakuri, the British Agent in Mandvi, to accompany Burnes. Thakuri had been Pottinger’s companion in his youthful exploration to Sind and Kelat. Pottinger’s final injunction to Burnes was typically British: to be sure to send back receipts for expenditure in duplicate.

  Pottinger then wrote on 18 February 1831 to Murad Ali Khan, principal Amir, informing him that Burnes was coming with presents for Ranjit Singh by river as ‘it would be utterly impossible to transport them by land’. Pottinger requested that the Amir provide suitable river vessels and a local guard of up to twenty good men, whose wages Burnes would pay. Pottinger informed Ali Khan that Burnes had instructions to discuss joint measures for the repression of Khosa banditry.

  Bentinck now wrote to Ranjit Singh to tell him the gift was coming.17 His letter was sent to Ludhiana, where the Resident, Captain Claude Wade, was the accredited Representative to Ranjit Singh’s court of Lahore. Wade set off for Lahore on 15 July, accompanied by a strong cavalry escort.18 The Governor-General told the Maharaja that, by the time the letter reached him, Burnes should be approaching. That proved highly optimistic.

  While Burnes was still at sea, Jetta Ahmed, British Native Agent at Haidarabad, had delivered Pottinger’s letter announcing Burnes’ coming to the Amir. The answer was instant and unequivocal:

  The Ameer observed that no English gentleman had ever come to Scinde in this manner nor had it ever been permitted that they should land at any of the sea ports of the country […] Captain Burnes would not […] be allowed to disembark, and that […] the Scinde government would be instructed to send him back. That he might then proceed by land, or any other way he liked, but that he never would be allowed a passage through the Scinde territories.19

  The Amir added that the treaty of 1809 stipulated that none of the Amirs’ families were allowed to go to Bombay, and no British were allowed to go to Sind. Jetta Ahmed suggested that Burnes was only passing through as a traveller, but this cut no ice. Ali Khan added that boats never had been successfully dragged against the stream to Lahore.

  Jetta reported that the Amirs suspected that Burnes was really coming to map the roads and sound the river, to prepare the way for an army. The following day Ali Khan summoned Jetta again to repeat his negative ‘with great warmth of expression’. Pottinger sent this report immediately to Romer, with a thunderous proposal that in response to the Amirs’ ‘threatening and insulti
ng’ behaviour ‘we may by blockading their harbours for a short time […] and forbidding all vessels from Scinde from entering any of the ports in the Company’s territory, reduce these ignorant and semi-barbaric rulers to […] making whatever apology or reparations we choose’.20

  The Amirs were castigated by British officials for being ‘suspicious’, ‘jealous’ and ‘insulting’. There seems an absence of self-awareness in the British. Amongst themselves they quite openly avowed that Burnes was on a spying mission, and yet they were indignant that any ‘Native’ would accuse them of it.

  Murad Ali Khan changed tack and wrote to Pottinger alluding regretfully to the physical impossibility of going up the Indus. It was too shallow, too fierce, the winds contrary, it had never been done before. He suggested Burnes go by land through Jaysulmir, there was grazing all the way […]21 Pottinger wrote to Romer that the Indus being unpassable was a lie; but to Murad Ali Khan he wrote diplomatically suggesting that even small boats could take a single horse, and that these horses were not fit for crossing deserts, while the carriage was so heavy an elephant could not take it.22 Romer wrote to Haidarabad in similar vein.23

  Ignorant of these problems, the Burnes flotilla sailed north, noting eleven mouths of the Indus delta, and conducting a brief survey of the largest eastern mouth. Eventually they reached the western mouth, and anchored in the river known here as the Pitti, with the white fort of Karachi visible and the Hala mountains beyond, which Burnes identified with the Mount Irus of Alexander’s admiral Nearchus.24

  On 29 January 1831, they sailed sixteen miles up the Pitti and anchored in fresh water. Burnes received a message from the local authorities asking him to halt pending orders from Haidarabad. The following morning a group of officials arrived from the Nawab of Karachi. Burnes allowed them to search the boats and found them ‘very civil’. On 1 February Burnes sent men ashore to obtain provisions; they came running back in panic. They had been manhandled; a rumour was widespread that the flotilla was hiding an army and being followed by a warship of 300 guns.