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INDIA UNDEK THE CROWN Afghanistan was intended, broke out into insurrection around Kabul, and in December, 1879, they combined for a resolute assault upon the British intrenchments outside the city. Their de- feat, after some very sharp fighting, quieted the sur- rounding districts for the time, and communications with India were reopened; but the manifest interest of the British government was to make over Afghan- istan to some capable and not unfriendly ruler; and, indeed, the war had been undertaken with this sole object. From this dilemma we were extricated by the ap- pearance in the northern province of Abd-ar-Rah- man, the nephew of the Amir Sher Ali's predecessor, who had been driven out of the country when Sher Ali won his throne in the civil war for succession, and had been living under Russian protection beyond the Oxus River. The Viceroy of India (Lord Lytton) made amicable overtures to him, with assurances that his accession to the vacant ruler- ship would not be opposed, and he received an invita- tion to the British headquarters at Kabul, for the ABD-AR-RAHMAN, AMIR OF AFGHANISTAN, FROM A PHOTOGRAPH MADE BETWEEN 1870 AND 1880. From The Life of Abdur Rahman.