while his half-brother, Mohammed Nazim, rules Hunza in his Place.
This same Mohammed Nazim was now deputed by Safder All to accompany me as far as Gilgit. On the day after leaving Gulmit we reached Baltit, the chief place in Hunza, where the. chiefs palace and fort are situated. I now had to hurry through, for winter was fast approaching, and as I was able three years afterwards to make a stay in the country, I will describe it more fully later on, and merely state here the opinion which I formed, during my two weeks' journey through the country, that
once the chief had been brought under control, there would be little difficulty with the people, who are of a far less warlike character than the Afghans, and would probably gladly welcome a more settled state of affairs, in which they would not be continually liable to be employed in petty wars got up between rival chieftains." When, two years afterwards, Safder Ali was forced to flee from the country, the people showed no regret ; and now, under Mohammed Nazim, a prince who understands that the time for truculency is past, it is acknowledged by every one who visits the country that these quondam-raiders are become a settled and contented people.
Pushing on ahead of my escort, I passed through Nilt, to which the next visitors were the gallant little force under Colonel Durand, who, at the end of 1891, conquered Hunza and Nagar. Two days from Baltit—after passing over sixty-five miles of most execrable roads, by paths climbing high up the mountain-sides to round cliffs or pass over rocks and boulders, and by galleries along the face of a precipice—I reached Gilgit, and was welcomed by Captain Durand and Lieutenant Manners-Smith, who had a few weeks before arrived to establish a British Political Agency there. To be once more free from anxiety, to be among my brother officers, to sit down to a meal prepared by some other than that most faithful of servants but worst of all cooks, Shukar Ali, the Ladaki, and to feel that the task
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