me most friendly, and took a curious pleasure
in pointing out to us the points of defence at which they would have
opposed us, had we been advancing as enemies.

Towards the end of June I heard from Lord Lytton that he wished me to
be one of the military members of a Commission of Inquiry into army
expenditure and organization which was about to be convened at Simla,
if I thought I could be spared from my post at Kuram. The people of
the valley had by this time settled down so contentedly, and the
tribesmen showed themselves so peacefully disposed, that I thought I
could safely leave my post for a time, before returning to take up my
abode in the neighbourhood for some years, as I hoped to do, when my
appointment as Frontier Commissioner should have received the sanction
of the authorities in England.

Meanwhile, however, some temporary arrangement was necessary for the
administration of Kuram, and I wrote to the Foreign Secretary (Alfred
Lyall), pointing out my views upon the subject.

Seeing how much could be done with these wild people by personal
influence, and how ready they were to submit to my decisions when
disputes arose amongst them--decisions at times literally given from
the saddle--I was very adverse to their being handed over to some
official who, from his training, would not be able to understand
dealing out the rough-and-ready justice which alone was suited to
these lawless beings, and who could not imagine any question being
properly settled without its having undergone the tedious process of
passing through the law courts. Such a rule would, I knew, disgust
a people accustomed to decide their quarrels at the point of the
sword--a people to whom law and order had been hitherto unknown,
and must be distasteful, until they had had time to realize their
beneficial effects. Profitable employment and judicious management
would in time, no doubt, turn them into peaceful subjects. Friendly
intercourse had already done much towards this end, and tribes who for
generations had been at feud with each other now met, when visiting
our camp, on common ground, without (much I think to their own
astonishment) wanting to cut each other's throats. What was further
required, I conceived, was the opening up of the country by means of
roads, which would facilitate intercommunication and give remunerative
employment to thousands who had hitherto lived by plunder and
bloodshed.

In answering my letter, the Foreign Secre