afghanistantwenty lakh rupees for an allegedly ‘treacherous’ correspondence with the
Shah of Persia. Nur Muhammad Khan pointed out that these demands
violated the recent treaty and commented that, ‘since the day that Sind has
been connected with the English there has always been something new;
your government is never satisfied’. 67 He had every reason to complain.
Not only was Britain meant to protect him; the Amirs of Sind had been
loyal allies for decades, but now they were treated as enemies and Britain
exploited the presence of a large army to force them to make territorial and
commercial concessions. To cap it all General Keane, hearing false rumours
that Nur Muhammad Khan had gathered an army to oppose the British
advance, besieged Hyderabad and humiliated the Amir by demanding
he and his brothers come to his camp and submit in person. Meanwhile,
British marines occupied the small fort of Karachi, securing in the process
the mouth of the Indus and port access to the Indian Ocean.
Keane’s attack on Hyderabad had been unauthorized and a furious
Macnaghten censured Cotton and Fane for allowing the general to go on
this ‘wild goose chase’ and demanded his recall. The generals responded
by accusing Macnaghten of interfering in military strategy. In the end
Macnaghten was not prepared to wait for Keane to rejoin the main army,
and following another stormy meeting with Cotton, the Bombay Brigade
was ordered to march on Kalat, leaving Keane and Shah Shuja‘ to follow
later. This led to another spat, this time between Colonel Dennie, who had
been left behind at Shikapur, and General Cotton, with Dennie accusing
his commanding officer of dismembering the army.
The route Cotton took to Kalat was meant to be a shortcut but it led the
army through a vast, uncharted desert. Despite being only late February,
day temperatures rose to well over 40°c, while at night they plummeted
to near freezing. The army had already denuded the region of food and
fodder and the desert offered little grazing for pack animals and even less
water. During the crossing thousands of animals perished and at least two
officers died from thirst and heatstroke. The local tribes also robbed the
mail and plundered the supply line. When the troops finally reached Dadar,
at the entrance to the Bolan Pass, in March 1839, the starving animals
glutted themselves on the crops of local peasants, stripping the fields like
a plague of locusts.
The Bolan Pass posed an even more formidable challenge. The camels
went lame on the sharp, rocky paths and the hill tribes plundered the
straggling column as it marched through the narrow defile. By the time
the Bengal Brigade reached Quetta it had travelled more than 1,660 kilo
metres (1,030 mi.) and was no longer an effective fighting force. With