Rebellion of Mohammad Yaqub Khan [‎180v] (50/174)

MISSION OF PE2SIAN ENVOY.
[ 1869.
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you assurance of our sincere fnendship, we P u , „ it h y your letters in future. I beg to
send you, as a present, a double-barrelled gun of a new description, and shall obh 0 ed by
your accepting it.”
On the 4th of October he represented to the Ameer that, in consequence
of the hi •>}, price of provisions, his daily allowance was not sufficient The
Ameer was displeased and told him to leave Cabul m a week. He did not,
however^ leave till the 21st October and took with him a small present for the
Governor of Meshed and a merely complimentary letter.
Before starting, he had shewn the Ameer a letter which he proposed to send
to the Persian Governor of Meshed. Obviously, it was a draft agreement, and
its terms are thus mentioned in the diary of 25th October :
«I—The cattle and other property belonging to the people of Furrah, &c., winch have
been plundered by the Seistm and Kainat levies, should be recovered from them by the Per
sian authorities, aud they should prohibit them from doing any aggression m future m the
Cabul border.
“ The Cabul authorities will, in like manner, recover the plundered property belonging to
Persian subjects, and. henceforth this rule will hold good, that is, all plundered properties will
be recovered from the authorities of the Government to which the aggressors belong.
II.—Traders of Cabul proceeding to Persia for mercantile purposes, or those of Persia
who "o to Cabul fpenerally declare themselves bankrupts, and the other tiadeis suffer a great
loss oil account oAheir having no means of realizing their debts. In future, all merchants of
both Governments will have to send information of their proceeding for trade to the heads of
their respective Governments, and if a merchant of the one kingdom fails in the other, the
ruler of the kingdom in which the said trader fails will adopt measures for the realization of
amounts due by him. The goods of the merchants will be sold under the superintendence of
an official of each Government, and he will get the proceeds collected.
ft in. The Governor for the time being in Herat will establish thannahs and such points
of bis frontier as may tend to prevent the Turkomans from attacking the people of Meshed.
“IV. —This petition has been sent to the Ameer, and on departure from Cabul, I (the
envoy) shall probably be fortunate enough to obtain consent to the above three different
matters.
“After perusal of the above paragraphs the Ameer sent Mirza Mahomed Hussein Khan
to the envoy to tell him to write to his Prince as follows, if he was going to touch upon the
above matter —
“ ‘ I.—At the instigation of Meer Alum Khan, Governor of Kainat, some short-sighted
levies have been guilty ot aggression in the Cabul border, and the said Meer receives his share
of property plundered by the aggressors. The Persian authorities are also well aware of this
fact. The Furrah and other levies have been Hitherto prohibited from proceeding aggressively
against Kainat and Berjend, but it the Meer does not abstain from his misdoings, they will
no longer wait to avenge.'’
“The Ameer considers that it is not advisable that he should ask the Persian authorities
to prohibit the Seistan levies from aggression in his dominions, as by doing so it might be
taken as a recognition that Seistan belongs to the Persians, and quoted as an admission, while
in reality Seistan is a dependency of Afghanistan. He has therefore declined mentioning
Seistan, and has only noted the intemperance of Meer Alum Khan.
fc H.—If a Persian merchant comes to Afghanistan, and, after selling his goods, is un
able to realize his money from any purchaser on account of his impoverished circumstances
or humble condition, the matter will be decided according to the local usage and the award
of Mahomedan law.
u HI*—The Governor of Herat will not fail to continue his protection of the roads
(through that country).
“ The Ameer has omitted, paragraph 4, thinking that the envoy was trying to make him
enter into engagements which have not hitherto existed. '
“ Mirza Mahomed Hussein Khan took the above draft to the Persian envoy, and got the
matter decided according to the views of the Ameer. A friendly letter, simply cornplimen-
Persian envoy.”