1840.] Notes on the Eusofzye tribes of Afghanistan, 925 



people of the hills, particularly those of Booneer, who had been the 

 principal supporters of the Sum against its foreign enemies, disheartened 

 by their losses at Noushera,^ contented themselves with brooding over their 

 disgrace, and rarely ventured to leave their fastnesses ; and it seemed 

 likely that, in spite of the difficulties opposed by the differences of their 

 religions, the disunited Munders would shortly fall an easy prey to the 

 victorious and one-minded Sikhs. One man alone prevented this. As his 

 physical resources and apparent means of resistance grew less, the courage, 

 the moral influence, and it may almost be said, the actual strength of 

 Futteh Khan increased. Punjtar is a cluster of five small villages, not 

 containing altogether 500 houses, situated at the upper extremity of a 

 valley, which opens into the Sum. It is a place of no strength whatever, 

 not even being surrounded by a wall, and the road to it is open and prac- 

 ticable for guns ; biit such was the terror inspired by the name of its chief, 

 that for many years it remained the bugbear of the Sikhs, and their largest 

 armies never ventured to approach it. At last a force of, it is said, 15,000 

 men with guns, and under an European officer, ascended the valley. The in- 

 habitants were amused with proposals for an accommodation, and during 

 the night, guns having secretly been conveyed to the top of a hill which 

 commands the place, an attack was made on the unfortified little villages. 

 Of the few Punjtaris thus taken by surprize, the greater number hastened 

 to place their families out of reach of the fiiry of the Sikhs ; but all those 

 not encumbered with wives and children, some 2 or 300 only, with Futteh 

 Khan and the Moullas at their head, unappalled by the overpowering masses 

 of the enemy, made a stand, and maintained an unequal fight for many 

 hours. Futteh Khan himself swore not to retreat, and was at last carried 

 off the field by force in the arms of his soldiers. The Sikhs destroyed the 

 principal village and mosque, but retreated the next day, lest the Booneeris 

 should be down upon them ; nor have they since revisited Punjtar. Futteh 

 Khan made a vow to pray in the open air till he had burned some house 

 of images, and shortly afterwards with a few followers, in pursuance of his 

 vow, he crossed the river, attacked a Sikh town, and levelled its Dhurmsalla 

 with the ground. 



Runjeit Singh was fully aware of the importance of conciliating an 

 enemy so spirited and implacable. He offered Futteh Khan a jageer of 

 three lacs, and to support him as Khan of all the Eusofzyes, if he would 

 only nominally acknowledge himself his subject, by sending him a hawk 

 or two, or a horse as a tribute. Most of the Khan's friends, and even the 

 Moullas recommended not that he should degrade himself into a pensioner 

 of the infidel, but that he should send a horse to the Maharaja as an 

 exemption from the annoyances and anxieties to which the vicinity of the 

 Sikh troops exposed them ; but the Khan was inflexible : with his character, 



