384 GOVERNOR - GENERALSHIP OF LORD HASTINGS

The largest, most important, and by far the most yaluable portion of this region was now under the direct administration of the British; the rest was under their sovereign influence. Taking the natural boundaries of India to be the ocean and the mountains, it may be said that the Anglo-Indian Empire now commanded the whole circuit of its sea frontier, that it was securely settled upon a base in the Himalayas, and that its western flank was covered to a great extent by the cis-Indus desert. On two sections, and two only, the frontier was still unstable and liable to disturbance on the northeast, where the Burmese were advancing into Assam, and on the northwest, where the Sikh kingdom beyond the Sutlaj had acquired formidable fighting strength under Ranjit Singh.