240 AFOOT THROUGH THE 



Dogra is applied, and the only limits of the term are 

 those of locality, for it is applied to hill tribes of all 

 faiths within a certain area. They have all the strong, 

 warlike qualities generally associated with people 

 brought up in a wild, rough land, and their chiefs have 

 proved worthy and enlightened rulers of the grand 

 province, ceded wrongly, as some hold, to them by the 

 British. Our Government at the time felt unable to 

 cope with all the vast additions to the then Indian 

 Empire. Its organisation had not proved elastic or 

 adaptive enough to keep pace with the energies of the 

 military commanders, and few then believed in the 

 possibility of our holding territory beyond the 

 Himalayas. 



It is perhaps a good thing that we did not overburden 

 ourselves. The rulers have proved good friends to the 

 Indian authorities, as was proved by the conduct of 

 Gulab Singh in '57, and that of the present ruler during 

 the troublesome war in Hunza Nagar, and owing to the 

 loyal carrying out of Mr. Walter Lawrence's land settle- 

 ment scheme the people are in as fair a way to enjoy 

 to the utmost the advantages of living in a rich land 

 as if directly under British rule. Many small vexatious 

 restrictions as to building, etc., have been relaxed, and 

 the wise administration of game laws and the improve- 

 ment of the tracks it is an obvious misuse of terms 

 to talk of roads in Kashmir will show that the country 

 suffers little from being only indirectly under the Sirkar. 



To return to Gulab Singh. He died in '57, and his 

 wise policy was continued by his successor, Ranbir Singh, 

 who did much for agriculture, and showed himself 

 hospitable to Europeans, and ready to imitate their 

 institutions, such as hospitals and schools, while being 



