s attracted sufferers from all parts of
Afghanistan.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER LVIII.
1880

Two important questions--A Ruler required--News of Abdur Rahman Khan
--Abdur Rahman in Afghan-Turkestan--Overtures made to Abdur Rahman

The outlook in Afghanistan on the 1st January, 1880, was fairly
satisfactory; the tidings of the defeat and dispersion of the
tribesmen had spread far and wide, and had apparently had the effect
of tranquillizing the country even in remote Kandahar, where the
people had been greatly excited by the news of our retiring from
Sherpur, and by the exaggerated reports of their countrymen's success.
No complications now existed anywhere, and preparations were commenced
for Sir Donald Stewart's force in southern Afghanistan to move
towards Ghazni, in anticipation of the carrying out of a complete and
connected scheme[1] for the pacification of the country, and an early
withdrawal from northern Afghanistan. No withdrawal, however, would be
possible until durable foundations had been laid for the future
safety of the Indian frontier, and reliable guarantees given for the
continued good behaviour of India's Afghan neighbours.

The two questions, therefore, which chiefly exercised the minds of
people in authority, both in England and in India, with regard to
Afghan affairs were, What was to be done with Afghanistan now we had
got it? and, Who could be set up as Ruler with any chance of being
able to hold his own?

The second question depended a good deal on the decision which might
be arrived at with regard to the first, for the selection of a Ruler
could hardly be considered until it had been determined whether the
several provinces of Afghanistan were to be again formed into one
kingdom, or whether the political scheme for the future government of
the country should be based on the separation of the several States.

I myself had come to the conclusion, after much deliberation and
anxious thought, that the latter course was the least dangerous for us
to adopt. Disintegration had been the normal condition of Afghanistan,
except for a short period which ended as far back as 1818. Dost
Mahomed was the first since that time to attempt its unification, and
it took him (the strongest Amir of the century) eight years after his
restoration to establish his supremacy over Afghan-Turkestan, fourteen
years before Kandahar acknowledged his authority, and twenty-one years