Thus far, in spite of obvious blunders, Fortune had favoured the progress of our arms. The Amírs had missed their opportunity of overwhelming Keane long before Cotton's troops could have come within striking distance, or any help have reached him from Bombay. The game of coercion had been played against them with entire success amidst circumstances which seemed to make for its inevitable failure. The whole business had been managed in a curiously haphazard way, under a Governor-General who sent conflicting or uncertain orders, by military leaders acting without concert, and political officers whose apparent functions clashed as much as their personal views. It was fortunate for us that Fane accompanied the Bengal column into Sind, and that Pottinger, not Burnes or Macnaghten, represented his Government at Haidarábád. But for Pottinger's discreet forbearance, Fane's cool judgement, and Keane's self-reliant courage, affairs might, as Sir Henry Durand remarks, 'have been very seriously compromised by the jarrings of triplicate envoys and triplicate commanders, and the want of concert amongst the isolated columns of the latter.
By the 20th of February the whole of Cotton's force was encamped at Shikárpur, much to the relief of Macnaghten, who, as Envoy and Minister to Sháh Shujá, had ill brooked the delays occasioned by the need of coercing the Sind Amírs. Burnes also was in camp as Envoy to the Khán of Khelát. Including Shujá's contingent, more than 15,000 troops of all
