interference with their internal affairs, gradually succeeded; raids
once chronic became exceptional, and were dealt with rather as matters
of frontier policy than of war. [Footnote: See Parliamentary Papers:
_Afghanistan,_ 1878, page 30, and _Beloochistan,_ No. 3, 1878.]

It must also be remembered, as an additional complication, that in
annexing the Punjaub, although it is essentially the country of the
Sikhs, who are Hindoos, the inhabitants of the trans-Indus districts are
for the most part what are termed Punjaubee Mussulmen, that is, Afghans,
in race, religion and language.

From what has been said as to our dealings with the border tribes, it
will be evident that while our difficulties were continuous and often
serious, still, they were chiefly local; and that the defence of the
Empire on that frontier against foreign aggression depended in a great
measure on our relations with the ruler of Afghanistan itself. When Dost
Mahomed, after the great war, returned in 1843 to his former position as
Ameer of that distracted country, it was hardly to be expected that,
although acquiescing in his reinstatement, we should be regarded by him
in a friendly light; still, some years passed away without any important
change in our relative positions, one way or the other.

In 1855, Lord Dalhousie was Governor-General, and a treaty was made
with Dost Mahomed, by which both parties agreed to respect each other's
territories. In January, 1857, a still more important one followed. We
were then once more at war with Persia; and at a meeting between Sir
John Lawrence and the Ameer, an agreement was entered into that Dost
Mahomed, acting in co-operation with us, should receive 10,000_l_.
a month for military purposes, to continue during the war; that English
officers should reside in his country temporarily, to keep the Indian