Black Bears 249 



hear the band playing at the Bedford mess, and the 

 sleepy creak and groan of the water-wheel in the 

 garden all day everlastingly. 



Here at last was the bungalow and its quiet, dark 

 rooms. The spotless servants, and my own ayah in 

 white and a scarlet coat, and half a dozen ear-, nose-, 

 wrist-, ankle-, and toe-rings and bangles and chains 

 glittering about her, stood salaaming on the doorsteps, 

 welcoming us back to the civilised world. 



It seems superfluous to enlarge upon a subject on 

 which competent authorities have written ; but before 

 I close this chapter I cannot resist adding a short note 

 to the many and forcible lines which have been penned 

 by other writers, of deep regret that Kashmir should 

 ever have been allowed to pass out of British hands. 



In the earliest days Hindu kings reigned in 

 Kashmir. They were conquered and succeeded by 

 Mohammedan rulers. In 1588 the country fell into 

 the hands of the Moguls. The Afghans gained 

 possession of it in 1756. It was wrested from them 

 by Rangit Singh, the Sikh monarch of the Punjab, 

 in 1819. When the Sikhs in 1 846 were defeated by 

 the English, they were unable to pay the one and a 

 half millions sterling which we demanded, and, as 

 equivalent to part of it, they ceded to us a large 

 territory of hill country, which included Kashmir. But 

 our Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, con- 

 sidered it expedient to make over Kashmir to the Jamu 

 chief, securing his friendship, while the British Govern- 

 ment was occupied in administering the Punjab. 



