CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 440 had written toUmra Khan of Jandol for help, and there were rumours that Sher Afzul was coming again from Afghanistan, and that Amir wasonly keeping the place ready for him.

The news of the outbreak at Chitral reached Gilgit on January 6th. Dr.Robertson started to make the difficult journeyover the passes on the 15th. Meanwhile fifty Sikhs hadbeen sent from Mastuj to reinforce Gurdon. Mastuj had been reinforced from Gilgit, and the garrisonof this last place had been strengthened and put under the command of Colonel J. G. Kelly, an officer who was soon to play adistinguished part witted. But the prince's folly was largely crafty pretence. He plotted the destruction of Nizam, and on January ist, during a hunting party,Amir murdered his half-brother,rodeinto Chitral, and claimed to be itsruler. " The fratricide who had so violently seized the Mehtarship," writes Sir G. Robertson," was only wrong from a Western standpoint ; in Chitral his deed was everywhere applauded. 'See,' observed several of the people to mesubsequently,' we thought Amir-ul-Mulk an idiot, and lo! he has killed Nizam.' Such remarks weremade with smiles of self-depreciation that THE CHITRAL CAMPAIGN.

in the struggle on the frontier. On the way over the passes Robertson received news that Umra Khan, withsome thousand fighting men, had crossed the snows of the Lowari Pass, from Jandol into the south of the Chitral Valley,and was threatening the fort of Kila Drosh. It was now a race who should reach Chitral first. Sending a formal protest against his aggression to Umra "Khan, and ordering lap some small detachments to secure his communications with Gilgit, Robertson pushed on as rapidly as possible, and reached Chitral by the end of the month.

the speaker had not formerly given the young murdererhis propermeed ofadmiration."

Lieutenant B. E. M. Gurdon was then the Britishresident inChitral. He had an escort of only eight Sikhs to protecthim, andin this land ofpolitical murderhislife wasin constantdanger. Amir-ul-Mulk demandedfromhiminstant official recognition asMehtar of Chitral, but the young officerrefused in any way to commit the Indian Government till he had reported and received instructions. Meanwhile he sent off toMastuj, the nearest British post, for a reinforcement of a few more Sikhs. Amir-ul-Mulk was using his new-wonpower to put to death his enemiesand those of his most trusted partisans. Gurdon warned him that such conduct wouldprejudice the Government against him. Meanwhile Amir Amir-ul-Mulk's men were holding a position between Chitral and Kila Drosh where it was easy to block the valley against an invader from the southward. Robertson provisionally