72 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



in Lahore, and bottling up your British ' indig- 

 nation ' at the slaughter of our countrymen. Action, 

 action, action ! Promptitude ! these are the watch- 

 words which constitute ikhdl [prestige], and not the 

 pusillanimous prudence and calculating indignation 

 which are content to endure public insult for half a 

 year. I quite blush for our position in the native 

 eye, and am striving within my own humble sphere 

 to throw a veil of little victories over it. What is so 

 extraordinary, I can get no answer from Sir F. C. 

 to any of my public letters or demi-officials re- 

 presenting the state of this frontier and the im- 

 perative necessity of securing Bahawal Khan, if 

 Mulraj is to be kept from overrunning the whole 

 country." 



" I have just now," he continues, " galled Mulraj 

 to the quick by defeating his lieutenant, Longa 

 Mai, at Ghazi Khan, taking him prisoner with a 

 gun, killing Chaitan Mai (Longa Mai's uncle) and 

 forty others, including a Sikh subadar of a regular 

 infantry company. This has given us the fort of 

 Dera Ghazi Khan and a country of eight lakhs 

 (£80,000). The success should be followed up by 

 Bahawal Khan crossing the Satlaj, my crossing the 

 Indus, and driving all Mulraj 's troops into the fort, 

 after which you might wait as many months as 

 you chose with both safety and dignity until 

 you were ready for a siege. Every post I urge 

 this to the Eesident, and am quite sick of every 

 post bringing no reply ! Some extraordinary in- 

 fatuation rests upon you all in Lahore. You talk 

 quite coolly and at ease : ' Send away the queen ' 

 and ' breathe again ' ; ' trust I am now getting over 

 the worst,' — and argue yourselves into the belief that 



