honour, and the safeguarding of our Eastern Empire, must be considered by-and-by.
Such was the tenour of Lord Auckland's letters to Sir Jasper Nicolls, then marching towards the Sutlej, and to Mr. George Clerk, his political agent for the Punjab, The latter gentleman, whose name stands high on the roll of Anglo-Indian statesmen, had been stoutly seconded by Mr. Robertson, the Lieutenant-Governor of Agra, in his efforts to hasten the advance of Wilds force from Firozpur. Could he have had his own way, Sale's garrison might have been relieved before winter had fairly set in. But Nicolls was slow and wary; and Wild's brigade, starting late in November, took more than a mouth to traverse the three hundred miles between the Sutlej and Pesháwar. The artillerymen who went with him had no guns. On the 3rd of January four rickety field-pieces were made over to our gunners by Avitabile's indignant Sikhs. But fresh delays damped the ardour of Wild's young Sepoys. At last, on the night of the 15th, two of Wild's regiments entered the Kháibar and made their way unharmed to the fort of Ali Másjid; but by some strange oversight they left behind them three-fourths of their food-supplies. A few days later Wild himself moved forward with the remainder of his brigade. But the Sikh troops that were to have acted with him had gone off in open mutiny to Pesháwar, the borrowed guns broke down at the first discharge; and the Sepoys, losing heart and order as the Afrídí bullets pattered among them, fell back in
