43° CHAPTER II.

THE FIRST OUTBREAK IN CHITRAL.

CHITRAL is oneof a group of small native states lying among the lower spurs of the Himalayas,in the mountain region that descends from the Pamirs to the plain of the Punjaub. It is about the size of Wales. It is ruledby chiefs knownasMehtars ;sometimes there were twoof them, but latterly the whole districthad been united under one Mehtar, who held his court at the fort of Chitral. It was very rarely that a Mehtar died a naturaldeath; the succession was generally secured by assassination, parricide and fratricide being familiar events in the annals of this mountainkingdom.

Chitral became a dependency of the Indian Empire for the first time in IS-6, when its Mehtar, Aman-ul-Mulk,fearing that the Amir of Afghanistan had designs against him,asked and was permitted to become a tributary of the neighbouring state of Kashmir, thus entering into theImperial system and securing its protection against Afghan aggression. Aman-ul-Mulk had been the most powerful ruler the valley- had known in the century. He hadheldhis own for thirty-five years when he diedin i8q2,generally detestedby his subjects, and not without some suspicion of poison. His death was followedby a stormy period. He had left a numerous offspring. Three of his sons, Nizam, Afzul, and Amir-ul-Mulk, were possible claimants of the vacant throne. A formidable rival was Sher Afzul, half-brother of the dead Mehtar, and uncle of the other princes, who was an exile and a soldier of fortune at the court of the Afghan Amir. Nizamand Afzul-ul-Mulk bothgathered a force of partisans, and appealed to the Indian Government for recognition ;but Afzul held Chitral fort, and Nizam, after a half-hearted attempt to advance against him, threw up the enterprise and fled to the British Agency at Gilgit, the nearest safe place ofrefuge.

Afzul-ul-Mulk did not hold Chitral very long. Hisuncle, Sher Afzul, with a band of Ate and Chitralis, were admitted by treacherous guards into the fort, and the new Mehtar was surprised and murdered. His cruelty had made him as wellhated as his father,and the assassin, Sher Afzul, was welcomedby the tribesmen as their new ruler.

But Nizam-ul-Mulk now plucked up courage to oppose the claim raised by his uncle, the murderer of his brother. He left Gilgit, and with a hasty levy of Chitrali adherents and Hunza men, advanced on Chitral fort. Slier Atzul was led by false rumours to believe that Nizamwas backed by the Indian Government ; there was apanic in Chitral, and the peoplepersuadedthe soldier-adventurer to return to Cabul, and Nizam-ul-Mulk reignedinhis stead.

He asked for a British agent to be sent to adviseand assist him, and Dr. (now Sir George) Robertson travelled over the passes from Gilgit with a Sikh escort in January, 1893. It was arranged that a British officer, with a small guard, should be permanently stationed at Chitral, and Robertson,having settled this, returned to Gilgit,at the end of the summer, with grave forebodings of troubles to come. For Nizam, weak, timid and cruel,sat insecurely on his throne. His neighbour, UmraKhan, the ruler of Jandol, was angry with the Indian Government for having slighted his claims to increased territoryin the new frontier arrangement, and was likely to make his discontent felt if there was anv disturbance on the border. But matters went on quietly enough for another twelve months. The chief trouble in1894 arose from the obstructive tactics of the Amir's general,Gholam Hyder Khan. He threw every possible obstacle and delay in the way of the frontier being surveyed and marked off in the hill country north of the Khyber, and at last theBritish Commissioners had to give up for the present allhope of accomplishing their task.

On New Year's Day, 1895, there was another tragedy ill Chitral. Nizam-ul-Mulk, the unpopular Mehtar, had a half-brother, Amir-ul-Mulk,hitherto left out of account in dynastic calculations becausehe was supposed to be half