BURNES, SIR ALEXANDER. 



BURNET, BIS I 



10*0 



The troop* of Runjeet Singh escorted them across the Chenab and 

 Uie Jelum to their frontier, about three milM beyond Attack, whore 

 they met the Afghani, and proceeded with them to Aoora, Tbence 

 they proceeded to 1'eshawur, which they left April 19, under the pro- 

 tection of one of Mohammed Kuan's officer*; and pawing through 

 JellaUbad. reached Cabal by the Latabund Pan, April 31. They 

 departed from Cabul May 18, and tearing Ohuxuee on the couth, 

 advanced by the IV* of Oonua, about 11,000 feet high, continued 

 their journey along the bane of the Kohi-Baba through the country of 

 the Hiuanu, and ascended the Pa** of Hageeguk, 12,400 feet high, 

 May 28. The mow bore their hone*, and tlio thermometer fell to 

 4 Fahrenheit. They attempted to a*oend the Paw of Kaloo, 1000 feet 

 higher than that of Hzeeguk, but were hindered by the mow, and 

 paved round it* shoulder, but were unable to continue their route 

 on horseback, and reached Bameeaii. After stopping a day to examine 

 the wonderful excavation* and enormous idols of the so-called oity of 

 Ghoolgoola, they crossed the Pas* of Acrobat, which separate* the 

 dominion* of modern Cabul from Turkistan, or Tartary. After cros- 

 sing the Dundan Sliikun, or Toothbreaker, and the Kara Koottul, or 

 Black Pass, on the 30th of May they made their last march among 

 the mountain* of the Indian Caucasus, and descended into the plains 

 of Tartary at Khooloom, the frontier town of Morad-Beg, the chief of 

 Khooudoox, and were delayed by receiving a summons to his presence, 

 at the village of Kaumabad, above fifty miles distant. Burnes assumed 

 the character of a poor Armenian watchmaker journeying from Luck- 

 now to Bokhara, and in his torn and threadbare garments happily 

 escaped detection, receiving a pass of safe conduct for himself and his 

 party (nine or ten tea-merchants who accompanied him), and on the 

 7th of June n joined his friend Mr. Gerard, who had been left at 

 Khooloom. 



On the 8th of June they again set forward, and reached Balkh on 

 the 8th, and after stopping three days to examine the ruins of that 

 ancient and once magnificent city, on the 12th they set forward at 

 midnight on camel* bearing pannu-rs which held one person ou each 

 side. On the 14th they entered the desert, and on the 16th reached 

 the bank of the Oxus, here 800 yards wide and 20 feet deep, which 

 they crossed in boat*, each drawn by two horses, which swam across 

 the stream. On the 27th of June the party reached the great eastern 

 capital of Bokhara, where they remained till the 21et of July. They 

 then waited in the neighbourhood of Karakool till the Kith of August, 

 when they accompanied a caravan, consisting of about 80 camels and 

 160 persons, some in panniers on camels, some on horses, and some 

 on asees. In this manner they passed the great desert by Merve, and 

 reached Meshed on the 14th of .September. On the 17th they reached 

 Koochan, a strong fortress, and here the two travellers separated, 

 Mr. Oerard having resolved to proceed to Herat and Condohar, and 

 then retrace his steps to Cabul. 



On the 29th of September, Lieutenant Burnes proceeded with a 

 party of about 300 persons, Khoords, Persians, and Turcomans, and 

 having passed by .Shir wan and Boojnoord, left bis companions, and 

 travelled alone about eighty miles to the town of Astrab.vd. Thence, 

 crossing an arm of the Caspian, he journeyed to Teheran, which he 

 reached on the 21st of October, and having had the honour of being 

 presented to the Shah of Persia, quitted the city on the 1st of 

 November. Having passed through Ispahan and Shiraz, he embarked 

 in a cruiser at liushire, on the Persian Gulf, and reached Bombay on 

 the 18th of January 1833, the journey having thus occupied just a 

 year. 



Soon after hi* return, he set off for Calcutta, to lay the result of his 

 travels before the governor-general, whose special thank* he received, 

 and hi* memoirs were ordered to be transmitted to the Court of 

 Directors. In June Lieutenant Burnes received orders to proceed to 

 Kngland as the bearer of his own dispatches. He left Calcutta 

 June 10, and reached London early in October. His reception at the 

 India House and by the Board of Control was in the highest degree 

 flattering. On the 30th of December he was presented at Court, and 

 received the special acknowledgments of the king for the unpublished 

 map and memoir which he had presented to his majesty. His manu- 

 scripts were prepared for publication without delay, and Mr. Murray 

 gave the author 8002. for the copyright of the first edition. The sale 

 of the work was very large, nearly 900 copies having been sold the 

 first day, and it was immediately translated into the French and 

 German language*. Literary honour* flowed fast upon him. He was 

 elected a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, and on his admission, 

 an emblazoned diploma was presented to him by Lord Munstcr. !!< 

 was made a member of the Royal Geographical Society, and received 

 the gold medal, and the royal premium of fifty guineas "for the 

 navigation of tli In.lu* and a journey by Balkh and Bokhara across 

 Central Asia." The silver medal of the French Geographical Society 

 was awarded to him, and on making a transient visit t > I 

 reception was enthusiastic. 



AfUr a stay of eighteen months in Kngland, ho departed for India, 

 April 5, 1835, and proceeding by the south of France, Egypt, ami thu 

 Red Sea, readied Bombay on the lit of Juno, and was soon after- 

 wards directed to resume bin duties a* aaistant to the resident in 

 C'olonel Potlinger. In Octxhvr 1M5 he was deputed on a 

 minion to Hyderabad, in order to prevent the necessity of a war with 

 Scinde. Hi* minion was successful. The Ameer* consented to a 



survey of the Indus, and to the abolition of the practice of robbing 

 stranded vessels. 



But a more import \nt mission was prepared for him before he had 

 completed his duties in Scinde. This was a mission to Dost Moham- 

 med, at Cabul, primarily of a commercial nature. He was to proceed 

 from Scinde through the Punjab, and by Peshawur to Cabul. and 

 enter into commercial relations with Dost Mohammed ; from Cabul to 

 Candahar, to negociate similar co-operation with the western chiefs ; 

 to institute inquiries a* to the state of trade, and mean* of carrying it 

 on ; and to return by the Bolan Pass and through Scinde to India. 

 The mission left Bombay November 26, 1836, reached Hyderabad 

 January 18, 1837; Attock, August 4 ; and Cabul, September 20. 



Meantime, Mahommed Shah had besieged Herat with an army of 

 60,000 men, and the Indian government had become alarmed at the 

 prospect of Persia and Russia uniting their forces with those of Afghan- 

 istan, aud making a conjoint attack on our Indian Empire. This 

 altered the object of Humes' s mission, and he ma le it his especial 

 business to investigate the intentions of Dost Mohammed. The Persians 

 indeed were compelled to retreat from Herat, but the presence of the 

 Russian agent, Vicovitch, at Cabul, perplexed and alarmed Burnes, 

 who pressed upon the Dost the propriety of dismissing Vicovitch, 

 which the Dost however refused to do, and Burnes himself received 

 his dismissal, April 24, 1838. 



Burues was directed to repair to the governor-general at Simla, and 

 he was there in August 1833. Here it was resolved to replace. Shah 

 Shoojah on his throne at Cabul. Burnes preceded the army to make 

 arrangements for the commissariat, and whilst at Shikarpoor, received 

 a copy of the ' London Gazette,' which announced his having been 

 knighted and advanced to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 



Sir Alexander Burnes proceeded from Scinde on a political mission 

 into Beloochistan, in which however he failed ; and in April 1839, he 

 joined the army at Quettah. Ou the restoration of Shah Sboujah, in 

 September 1839, he was appointed political resident at Cubul, in 

 which office be continued till he was murdered, November 2, 1-41, 

 with his brother Lieutenant Charles Humes and others, on the breaking 

 out of the insurrection in that city ; for the details of which, the 

 disastrous retreat of the British army, and subsequent events, see 

 AFGHANISTAN, in the GEOQ. Div. of this work. 



Sir Alexander Burnes was never married. His father and mother 

 survived him, and he left three surviving brothers. 



Besides his ' Travels into Bokhara,' of which we have given a sketch, 

 after his death was published ' Cabool ; being a Narrative of a Journey 

 to and Residence in that City, in the years 1836, 7, and S. By the 

 late Lieut-CoL Sir Alexander Burnes,' London, Svo. He was also 

 the author of some papers in the Journal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society of London. 



(Aniattc Journal, March, 1842; Journal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, 1834, Part 2.) 



BURNET, GILBERT, Bishop of Salisbury, was born at Edinburgh, 

 18th September 1643. His father, Robert Burnct, Esq., of Cremont, 

 in Aberdeenshire, was a practitioner of law, and at the Restoration 

 was made one of the judges of thj Court of Session. The family was 

 a younger branch of the ancient house of Burnet of Leys, ou which a 

 baronetcy was conferred in 1626. 



At the age of ten Gilburt was sent to college at Aberdeen, where, 

 after having taken his degree of M.A., he proceeded to prepare himself, 

 by the study of the civil law, for following his father's profession. 

 He soon however gave up this study for that of divinity, and w.is 

 licensed to preach, according to the forms of the Scotch church, in 

 1661. Although offered a living by his relative, Sir Alexander Burnet, 

 he considered himself yet too young to undertake such a charge. In 

 1663 he visited Cambridge, Oxford, and London, and afterward 

 a tour through Holland, the Netherlands, and part of France. On his 

 return to England he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society. 



In his own country he soon acquired much reputation as a pn 

 He had from tho first adopted tho practice of preaching cite, 

 or without writing ou>- hi* discourses. In 1605 he Wiis, on tho pre- 

 sentation of his friend Sir Robert Fletcher, appointed minister of the 

 pariah of Saltoun, in East Lothian, on which occasion he r> 

 ordination from the bishop of Edinburgh. Here he spent nearly five 

 years, during which ho gained tho worm attachment of hi.i parishioners. 

 While here also he began his interference in affairs of church and state, 

 by drawing up, in 1666, a strong representation against certain abuses 

 ! authority, which he imputed to the Scottish bishops, and 

 circulating it in manuscript. For this step it is said that Archbishop 

 Sharpe proposed his deprivation aud excommunication ; but the 

 other bishops did not second the zeal of tho metropolitan, and nothing 

 was done. 



From 1663, whn tho administration of Scotland was put into tho 

 hands of Sir Robert Murray, and moderate counsels for a short time 

 prevailed, Burnct, young as he was, began to be much consulted by 

 tho.o at the head of nffiirs. In 1669 ho was chosen Professor of 

 Divinity at Glasgow, and from thin time he became more than ever 

 mixed up with affairs of state. Keeping to the lino of moderation 

 upon which he hod set out, he applied his efforts to reconcile t)n< 

 dukes of Lauderdalc and Hamilton, tho hoods of the two pnrtiea which 

 then ntrovo for tho ascendancy ; but in this attempt he had no success. 

 About this time he is said to have refused one of the Scottish 



