78 MAJOR W. HODSON. 



has occurred in Hazara, a wild hilly region on the 

 left bank of the Indus, above Attock, where one 

 of the powerful sirdars^ has raised the standard of 



revolt." 



In the same letter Hodson confided to his friends 

 at home the fact that his countrymen had narrowly 

 escaped " the effects of a general and well-organised 

 conspiracy against British supremacy in Upper India. 

 Our ' ally ' Gulab Singh, the creature of the treaty 

 of 1846, the hill tribes, the whole Punjab, the chiefs 

 of Rajputana, and the states round Ambala and 

 Karnal, and even the King of Kabul, I believe, have 

 been for months and months securely plotting, with- 

 out our having more than the merest hints of local 

 disturbances, against the supremacy of the British 

 Government. They were to unite for one vast 

 efi'ort and drive us back upon the Jumna. This 

 was to be again the boundary of British India. The 

 rising in Multan was to be the signal. All was 

 prepared, when a quarrel between Mulraj and the 

 treacherous khan, Singh Man, who was sent to 

 commence the war, spoilt their whole scheme. The 

 proud Rajput, Gulab Singh, refused to follow in 

 the wake of a Multan merchant, and the merchant 

 would not yield to the soldier. We have seen the 

 mere ebullitions of the storm, the bubbles which 

 float at the surface. I believe that now we are 

 safe from a general rising, and that the fall of 

 Multan will put a stop to mischief. . . . Absolute 

 supremacy has been, I think, long demonstrated to 

 be our only safety among wild and treacherous 



1 Chatar Singh, father of Rajah Sher Singh, who had been sent 

 with a strong Sikh force to co-operate with Edwardes against 

 Mulraj. 



