512 Bf ief History of Kalat. [No. 1 38. 



being done, and made excuses for not doing the latter; saying, a 

 *reaty should be made with him, as had been made with the Ameers of 

 Sinde and the Nawab of Bhawulpoor, to both of whom he consider- 

 ed himself superior, as he had never been tributary, as they had, to 

 the Sodozye kings. A treaty was refused, and after the march from 

 Shikarpore of the army of the Indus, Sir A. Burnes proceeded to Kalat, 

 to purchase supplies and bring Mehrab Khan to pay his respects to 

 Shah Shuja at Shawl ; both of which objects he failed to accomplish, 

 and the districts of Shawl and Cutchee were declared forfeited by the 

 Khan accordingly. 



The army advanced on Candahar and Cabool, and Mehrab Khan hav- 

 ing been convicted of annoying detachments frequenting the Bolan 

 Pass, by means of the Brahoee and other tribes inhabiting the neighbour- 

 hood, his deposition was determined on ; and the Bombay column, 

 Deposition. under General Wiltshire, on their return, took the 

 fortress of Kalat by storm on the 13th November, 1839. 



Just before the citadel was stormed, and he was killed, Mehrab 



Khan sent the following message, with a match- 

 Last message to . 



his son. lock, to his son by darogah Moosa : " Tell my 



son that both myself and my wealth have past away and become sin- 

 offerings for him ; give him this matchlock, that has descended as an 

 heir-loom from his forefathers. Tell him to keep it, and bear it on 

 his shoulders ; and he will one day be Khan of Kalat. Tell him not 

 to be guided by the counsel of the Brahoees, and not prematurely to 

 oppose Shahnawaz Khan." 



Mehrab Khan, in his lifetime, gave two of his daughters in mar- 

 Connect- . riage to two sons of Meer Karam Khan Eltazye ; and 

 Marriage. f or fog son? the young Nusseer Khan, he engaged the 

 daughter of Meer Rusheed Khan Zahree. 



The following will shew that Mehrab Khan repented of the murder- 

 ous policy he had pursued. 



In durbar one day in August 1838, wishing to prove, if what I had 

 heard of his cruel disposition was true, I remarked, that the Afghans 

 and Baloches could only be ruled with a rod of iron. " I thought so 

 too," replied he with a sigh, " and many a chief have I had butchered 

 beneath this very window at which we are sitting ; but I was wrong, 

 and I have lived to know it." 



