CHAPTER VI. MORE SUCCESSION TROUBLES. HOSE who have followed me thus far will THO remember that there was another claimant to the throne of Joonagur in the person of the youngest son of the deceased Nawab, whose mother rested the claim on the fact of her own higher rank. Some time after the troubles recorded had subsided, the intrigues of one or both dowagers raised considerable hostility to the reigning prince. One entire State, that of Mangrol, threw off its allegiance, and a discontented grassia, or landholder, a Katty, Hursoor Wala by name, irritated by some infringement of his rights during the last reign, was tempted to raise the standard of revolt, and gathered around him some four score followers. The determined disobedience of the rebel State to all the advice and injunctions of the agency forced me to represent to Government that no means of preserving the peace of the country remained without backing diplomacy by force, and this view being approved, I received permission to employ troops at my discretion. And further, on the military authorities afterwards ordering the artillery away from the province for its annual exercise at a distant station, Government, at my request, directed the Commander-in-chief not to remove it. During this lull before the local storm, the great Afghanistan hurricane set in, regarding which the only orders I received were the instructions sent to all political authorities by Lord Auckland, then Governor-General, passed on for my guidance by the Government of Bombay, to the effect that, while exercising the utmost caution to keep clear of entanglement in any Political question, equal care was to be taken to avoid showing the white feather, and no steps should be retraced when the so doing might be attributed to weakness, and thereby encourage opposition. Armed with the sanction of Government, I had already warned the Mangrol Durbar that its obstinacy would be subdued by force if necessary, but that I was so unwilling to have recourse to it that I gave them yet a short time for consideration. Meanwhile, Hursoor Wala and his men had taken up a position among the fastnesses of a jungle, known as the Geer, one mass of ridges and ravines, covered with low forest trees and bushes, about a hundred and fifty odd miles in circumference, where it would have been as difficult to find them as the proverbial needle in the bundle of hay. What added to the difficulty was the absence of water throughout nearly the whole region, which, however, prevented any lengthened sojourn therein of the rebels, and obliged them to get their needful supplies from friendly villages scattered round the borders. The young Nawab was fortunate in possessing a minister both able and energetic, and Hubeeb Khan, for that was his name, had done his best to bring the rabble of the State army into something like order, though, with so many conflicting interests raging, it was difficult to know on whom to depend. This force was employed to check the incursions of the rebels. It was now that, whilst preparing for a march on Mangrol, I suddenly received information of a plot by which some of Hursoor Wala's men were to be admitted secretly into the city of Joonagur during a procession of the young Nawab, to take place on a certain state occasion a week later. Advantage was to be taken of a convenient opportunity during the customary feu de joie, or desultory firing, practised on such occasions, to shoot him. The people would naturally rally round the party whose succession to the Gadee would then remain undisputed. I was at a week's distance by post from Bombay, therefore, if I moved at all in the matter, it behoved me to do so at once, without waiting for the Government reply to my despatch on the subject, nor did it occur to me as necessary, sanction for the employment of force having already been given, no counter-orders received, and the emergency plainly requiring it; for the Mangrol Durbar, the ambitious Ranee, and the Geer rebels were evidently acting in concert. The first had already come into collision with the Nawab's supporters within Mangrol, and after a struggle had succeeded in expelling its own Karbaree (minister) for his opposition to their rebellious tendencies. He, however, contrived to hold one gateway of the town, all the rest being in the hands of his opponents. From this insecure position urgent messages arrived from him for speedy support, failing which he must surrender or escape. Prompt action alone appeared the way to prevent anarchy and bloodshed, the end of which it was impossible to conjecture, and I accordingly took the field with all the troops that could be spared from cantonment duty; but a large number of irregulars had previously been despatched to guard the passes of the Geer, leaving open only one in which quarter were villages known to furnish the rebels with supplies. These villages Hubeeb Khan was endeavouring to bring under his control or failing that, active supervision; for all which purposes he had some two thousand of the Nawab's Sebundee or militia, and our plan was aided by some hundred Gaekwar horse, from the contingent stationed in the province under my orders. |