PRESENT STATE OF MIR VALI.
A year and a half ago Mir Vali (who drugs himself with charas = a preparation of hemp) got offended with Pahlivan, (probably on account of a difference of opinion in re Hayward);[102] went to Kandiá (road described elsewhere) and to Manikiál [not the village so often referred to in the account of the Wars] on the borders of Swat. Thence he went to Tall, Ramta, Berahmar and then to Beïkéy, the Akhûn of Swat, who asked him why he had come. Mir Vali said that Pahlivan had annoyed him and as the Akhun was a great Saint he had come to him, having no other friends. The Akhun entertained him for eight months, after which, on a Friday (when service takes place at noon instead of 2 P. M.) he told him to go back to Yasin, “for your heart’s desire has been accomplished.” Mir Vali at once started off on horseback, taking the bank of the Indus. On the third day he reached Ghorband; thence he went to Damtirey, Bilkái, Ranulia and Jajiál; there he crossed the river to Kúi; thence to Palus, Gagréy Khware (or in Gilgiti, Gabréga), Shogobind (a place for pasture) Jaglôth, Tekkegá, Parbáh (a place for pasture) Latór, Sazin, Dareyl, viz: Gayá, Samegial (where he stayed a week in order to consult Mulk Aman, who was there) Manekial, the Matrêt valley (pasture place for Gujers), and finally to Yasin. There he was well received by Pahlivan who could not understand why he had left and now the brothers love each other more than before. The rule is in the hands of Mir Vali who keeps up friendly relations with the Dogras and would strengthen these relations still further were it not for fear of Aman-ul-mulk, who is a great enemy of the Maharajah and who has ordered him to have as little to do with them or Isa Bahadur as possible. [[Vide note on next page.]]
MULK AMAN.
When Mulk Aman remembered his country, Yasin, he fell home-sick in Chitrál and begged Aman-ul-mulk to let him go and, if Aman-ul-mulk would assist him, he would fight the Sikhs or else die as a martyr. Aman-ul-mulk said that Mulk Aman could only do the latter, as he had no army left. “I advise you, he added, to go to Dareyl and ask the Maharajah’s forgiveness, who may give you some appointment. Serve him, he said, as Isa Bahadur has done and you may be restored to the throne of your ancestors.” Aman-ul-mulk said this in order to get rid of the importunities of Mulk-Aman, who left for Samegial. Baghdur Shah and Kuweti, the Maharajah’s agents, happened to be there and actually offered to intercede with the Maharajah on his behalf and to get him an appointment. Mulk Aman was delighted. The agents spoke in his favour to the Maharajah who cheerfully ordered him to present himself. They came to Samegial and brought Mulk Aman to Jammu. His Highness bestowed a dress of honour, a horse and Rs. 200 on him and a monthly salary of Rs. 100 for himself, Rs. 30 for his son and Rs. 50 for the rest of his family and requested him to live at Gilgit outside the fort. “Remain there for 7 years; afterwards I will give you Yasin.” This Mulk Aman did and built a house about 100 yards from the fort. He did not, however, for two years send for his family from Samegial where he had left them when he started for Jammu. When they came he continued serving Kashmir for four years more. Isa Bahadur, however, happened to tell Zoraweru last year (for Isa was the arch-enemy of Mulk Aman and feared his getting back to Yasin) that Mulk Aman intended to escape with his family to Chitrál, after which, as he had plotted with the Gilgitis, there would be a general revolt which would end in his sharing the Government of Yasin with Pahlivan. When Zoraweru heard this he consulted with Isa Bahadur, who advised him to seize Mulk Aman and send him and his family to Jammu at once, so as not to give him time to rouse the country. This pleased the Governor and a suitable hour was left to Isa’s discretion for surrounding the house and bringing Mulk Aman and his family before Zoraweru. Isa Bahadur at once went and selected 400 young men whom he ordered to be in readiness at four in the afternoon. Accidentally a friend of Mulk Aman overheard the conversation between Zoraweru and Isa Bahadur and at once informed him of what was contemplated and of the arrangements made by Isa. The friend advised him to flee at once into the mountains. Mulk Aman, greatly astonished, went to his house and ordered his family to get ready to start. Just as his women were coming out of the house, he saw Isa Bahadur with his soldiers all round it. Mulk Aman drew his sword, ran a-muck among the troops and after killing a few soldiers managed to escape alone into the mountains in the direction of Dareyl.[103] However swiftly pursued he could not be found; the Sikhs returned from the mountain and took the family prisoners. Mulk Aman, descending on the other side of the mountain, came to Samegial. Isa Bahadur then presented the women and children as hostages to Zoraweru who forwarded them to Jammu, where they still remain. Shortly afterwards the Maharajah heard that Mulk Aman was perfectly innocent of any conspiracy and had been got out of the way by the calumny of Isa Bahadur, the enemy of the house of Gauhar Aman from which he had suffered. The Maharajah was very sorry at what had taken place and ordered Muhammad Khan of Swat to bring the brave and unfortunate man back from Samegial under liberal promises of rewards and appointments. The Swati started and told Mulk Aman that he was responsible that no treachery was intended. All was in vain; he insulted Muhammad Khan and raved about the loss of honour, etc., which he had suffered at the hands of the Maharajah. “If he makes me his greatest Sirdar he can not wipe out the stain of having taken away my wife.” Muhammad Khan returned to Jammu from his fruitless expedition and told the Maharajah, who was very sorry. Twenty eight days after Muhammad Khan’s visit, Mulk Aman, considering himself unsafe, went to Harbenn, which is still Yaghistan [independent, wild]. Zoraweru then advised the Maharajah to send for him, as he had got among the Yaghis and might incite them to an attack on Gilgit. “Above all, make him satisfied.” When the Maharajah read Zoraweru’s letter, he again sent the Swati to Harbenn and told him to swear on the Koran, on his own behalf and that of His Highness, that it was all Isa’s fault and that he would give Mulk Amán his revenge for the wrong suffered and allow him double his former salary. This Muhammad Khan did and saw Mulk Aman at Harbenn to whom he brought a shawl as a present from himself. He told him, in private, after “salâming” to him at a public meeting, all that he was charged to say and took an oath in attestation of the sincerity of his promises. Mulk Aman replied that he would not fall a victim to treachery and that if he said another word or came again he would certainly kill him. So Muhammad Khan left and again had to report his failure. “Only an army can bring him, he said, back from Harbenn.” The Maharajah is hoping now that he will get tired of wandering about and come back of his own accord. During the last eight months he has sent nobody for him. Mulk Aman is very badly off and is now at Rimon (Dareyl) and I am quite sure that the Yaghistanis will never assist him. His brothers will not help him. His wife (Mahtar’s widow) is now at Jammu and reports have spread about her conduct.”
In connexion with the Sazîni’s account, which in all particulars relating to the tribes is very trustworthy, may be read the following statements of S... S... of Kûner, on the borders of Kafiristan, now a Christian. He relates that he was once a Sepoy in the Maharajah’s Army and started on one of the Gilgit expeditions [1860?] with 300 Affghans and 3,000 Dogras, etc., under the command of Samund Khan, Ata Muhammad, Badam Singh, Man Singh and Dula Singh. He believes that Wazir Pannu was with the forces. At any rate, the attack on Gilgit was mere child’s play. The Kashmîr troops bombarded it for two or three days, but the Dards had no cannon with which to reply. Wahháb, the Wazir, looked out of one of the fort loopholes and was shot and so was a Bhishti. Wahháb’s body was stripped and hung to a tree. S... S... adds, “We were well entertained by the people who treated us to curds and we found grapes and wallnuts in abundance at Sher Kila’. The women of the country cooked our food, but our soldiers repayed the hospitality which they received by plundering and ill-treating the inhabitants. I remained behind, but when my company came back they told me that the Sikhs wanted to dig out the body of Gauhar Aman, but were prevented from doing so by their own Muhammadan comrades. We found caverns in the mountains which were filled with food for the use of the enemy. It is the custom of this people to heap up food in caverns to which the owners only know the way. After entrusting Sher Kila’ (a fort as big as that of Gilgit and constructed of wooden beams and stone) to the administration of native partisans, we went to Gao-Kutsh, where we found plenty of sport. Gauhar Aman used to sell captured Sepoys for hunting dogs.” (This story is repeated from so many trustworthy quarters that it seems to deserve credence. I heard it from many at Gilgit in 1866. The kidnapping propensities of Gauhar Aman were great and one of my own retainers, a petty Chief, had been dragged off for sale, when he escaped by sliding down a mountain side. Yet the people of Gilgit preferred his rule to that of Kashmir and revolted in his favour, when oppressed by Santu Singh in 1852). “We had two Hindustani rebels of 1857 with us and there were also several with the petty Rajahs.” [This important statement can be somewhat confirmed by me. What I understood to be the fourth Light Kashmir Cavalry was said to be almost entirely composed of rebels of 1857. I found many of the stations in charge of Swatis and numbers of soldiers of that race at Gilgit. One of the Maharajah’s Sepoys, who came to see me, admitted that he was formerly at Hyderabad and then had joined the rebels.]
I can also confirm the statements of the Sazîni with regard to the atrocities committed in the War with Dareyl. In order to be able to report victories, men, said to be innocent of complicity in the war, were hanged and women were dragged into captivity in order to fill the Zananas of the Kashmîr Sepoys. I saw the body of a tall, and powerfully built Dareyli, which had evidently been hacked about a good deal, suspended on a tree by the way-side. It was said to be the body of a man who was quietly returning to Sai, which had long been in the undisturbed occupation of the Maharajah. A little further on near Jaglôth [which is also in long-occupied territory] there is a bridge on one of the poles of which I saw the skeleton head of a Lumberdar of the place, said to be perfectly innocent of all participation in the war with Kashmir. The roofs of the houses in Gilgit had been blown off, and most of the inhabitants had fled into the mountains ([vide “dance at Gilgit” page 36]). On the other hand, dreadful stories were related of the retaliation of the Dard tribes. Sepoys had been sold by hundreds into Badakhshan, etc.; others had been used as fireworks and blown to atoms for the amusement of the Kunjûtis. Personally, I found the Dards pleasant enough and consider them to be superior in many respects to either Dogras or Pathans, but it is by no means improbable that they have been guilty of many of the atrocities which are laid to their charge. At the same time, it must be remembered that the wanton cruelties of the Massacre of Yasin ([vide page 69]) and the fact that their country was invaded by a stranger and an “infidel”—in defiance of treaty obligations—is some palliation for their conduct. The Kashmîr troops, and more particularly the coolies sent with them, were also grossly neglected as regards food, clothing and shelter by their own authorities. It is said that out of 12,000 Kashmiris, impressed for the purpose of carrying loads, only 600 survived in the expedition of 1866. The roads were strewn with the skeletons of horses, etc. I saw men in the most emaciated condition and ready to eat “unlawful” food. Three Mussulmans in a dying condition whom I met below the “Acho” summit,[104] were ready to take a tin containing pork and could scarcely be restrained till “lawful” food was brought to them by my servants. Men were forced to go with the troops. One Hakím Ali Shah, a teacher at Amritsar, was compelled to serve as a physician, a post to which he had no other claim, except that his name happened to be “Hakím.” I rescued him. A virulent fever was destroying the troops at Gilgit, who, even after the siege of the fort had been raised, were liable to be shot down by prowlers from the tribes within a few yards of the fort. I ordered the fort, etc., to be cleaned and, although myself in danger of life from my Kashmîr friends, if not from the tribes, I insisted on my order being obeyed, the assumption of an authoritative tone being often a traveller’s only chance of safety among Asiatics. I distributed medicine among the troops and was afterwards told in Durbar by the Maharajah that some medicine which I had sent to Wazir Zoraweru, who was then on his Dureyl expedition, had saved his life.