THE CONQUEST OF BUEMA

391 the great northeastern Chief-Commissionership of As- sam. The acquisitions made by the Burmese war had thus effectually sealed up and secured the eastern Anglo- Indian frontier, as the Grurkha war had quieted the only state that could molest the British along the line of the northeastern Hima- layas. When a usurper seized the Bhartpur chief- ship in 1826, Lord Com- bermere took by assault the strong fortress of Bhartpur, before which Lord Lake had failed in 1805. Within India there were now actually only two sovereign powers, the THE GOLDEN THRONE OF RANJIT SINGH. English and the Sikhs; for the Amirs of Sind scarcely fell within the cate- gory of Indian rulers. Ranjit Singh, under whom the Sikh domination in the Pan jab reached its climax early in the nineteenth century, had acquiesced, after some indications of hostility, in the policy of main- taining friendly relations with the British government. In 1809 he had consequently signed a treaty that con- fined his territory to the north and west of the Sutlaj River, with the exception of a strip of country on the south bank, in which he was bound not to place troops. This exception had important consequences later; but the broad line of demarcation between the two states