[2] And again in the cold weather of 1798-99 he advanced as far as Lahore, but was recalled by the invasion of Khorassan by the Persian troops. Lord Wellesley had by this time succeeded to the government of India. The danger was then considered sufficiently cogent to call for an augmentation of the native army.
[3] I find this fact, which however is to be referred rather to dread of the Mahrattas than to hatred of the British, stated, among other answers to queries put in 1800-1 by Captain Malcolm to Mahomed Sadik.—MS.
[4] Of the two, perhaps, Lord Wellesley regarded the movements of the Douranee monarch with the livelier concern. Sir John Shore wrote: “Report speaks of an invasion of Hindostan by Zemaun Shah, and with respect to his intention is entitled to credit.... The execution of his intentions will be hazardous unless he can obtain the co-operation of the Sikhs and hostages for the continuance of it; and I have great doubt as to his success.” Lord Wellesley, two or three years later, spoke of the threatened invasion “creating the liveliest sensation throughout India;” and added, “Every Mahomedan, even in the remotest region of the Deccan, waited with anxious expectation for the advance of the champion of Islam.”
[5] Men who lived to occupy a space in history, as the Duke of Wellington, Sir Barry Close, and Sir Thomas Munro. Malcolm was Secretary to the Commission, and Munro his assistant.
[6] “Captain Malcolm,” he wrote to the Secret Committee, “returned from his embassy in the month of May, after having completely succeeded in accomplishing every object of his mission, and in establishing a connection with the government of the Persian Empire, which promises to the interests of the British nation in India political and commercial advantages of the most important description.”—[MS. Records.]
[7] A writer in the Calcutta Review, who betrays an acquaintance with his subject such as could only have been acquired in the countries of which he writes, or by the examination of an immense mass of contemporary records, justly observes: “That the storm was dissipated in the manner suggested by Lord Wellesley was creditable to his lordship’s foresight, but was entirely independent of his measures. The second expedition of Futteh Ali Khan into Khorassan in 1800, which drew Shah Zemaun from Candahar to Herat, took place almost simultaneously with Captain Malcolm’s journey from the south of Persia to the capital. His majesty received the British mission at Subzewar; and the subsequent proceedings of Shah Mahmood, which led, in the sequel, to his dethronement, so far from originating in British instigation or in Persian support, were in reality indebted for their success to their entire independence of all foreign aid. As the minion of Persia, Shah Mahmood could never have prevailed against his elder brother. As the popular Douranee champion he was irresistible.”—[Calcutta Review, vol. xii.] Malcolm was at Shiraz in June, 1800, when he received intelligence of the Shah’s successes in Khorassan.
[8] MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm.
[9] Before Malcolm left Shiraz he began to have some misgivings on the score of his lavish expenditure. “I trust I will not disappoint your hopes,” he writes from that place, under date July 26, 1800, “but the expense I have incurred is heavy, and it is on that score alone I am alarmed. Not that it is one farthing more than I have to the best of my judgment thought necessary to answer, or rather further, the ends of my mission, and to support the dignity of the British Government; but people sometimes differ in their opinions on such points. However, ‘All’s well that ends well.’”—[MS. Correspondence of Sir John Malcolm.]
[10] Brigadier-General Malcolm to Lord Minto, October, 1810.
[11] Kishm is a large island, and Angani a small one at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. They properly belonged to the Arabs. Kharrack is at the further end of the Gulf, nearly opposite Bushire.