Indian Antiquary Vol 62

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 236

222
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
DECEMBER, 1933
In 1834 Masson made his peace with the East India Company and became a political correspondent of the Government of India (Parliamentary Papers, Indian Papers, No. 5, 1839, No. 131-II, pp. 19-22; and Masson MSS.). The Governor-General of India recommend ed to the Home Authorities that a pardon for his desertion be extended to Masson" in the event of that individual's fulfilling the expectations which are entertained of him " (Bengal Secret Consultations, June 19, 1834).
In Kibul Masson collected information about Afghan affairs and forwarded it to Government via the Khaibar Pass and Captain C. M. Wade, British Political Agent at Ludhiana). He remained in the Afghān capital until the failure of the Burnes mission, when he returned to India (1838). Burnes he considered a bungler, and he severely criticised the Afghān policy of Lord Auckland, the Governor-General. He resigned the employment that he had long felt to be "disagreeable," "hopeless and unprofitable," and denounced the service of the Government of India as "dishonourable" (Narrative, post, 1842, III, 484, 486).
During the First Afghan War Masson went to Baluchistan, intending to resume his explorations. He arrived at Kalāt shortly before an outbreak against the British occupation, and upon his return to Quetta he was arrested by Captain J. D. D. Bean, British Political Agent, on suspicion of being disloyal and of being a Russian spy (1840). He was treated with brutality, according to his own account. Little food was provided. Once he was given sheep's entrails, "a mess... ...which any dog in Quetta might have claimed for his own" (Narrative, post, 1843, pp. 259-260). Upon his eventual release he returned to England.
In London, where he arrived in February 1842, Masson wrote a Narrative of Various Journeys in Balochistan, Afghanistan, and the Panjab, 3 volumes, London, 1842, and a Narrative of a Journey to Kalāt......and a Memoir on Eastern Balochistan, London, 1843. The two works were combined and reprinted in 4 volumes, London, 1844. Masson also published Legends of the Afghan Countries, in Verse, with Various Pieces, Original and Translated, London, 1848, and read papers before the Royal Asiatic Society: "Narrative of an Excur. sion from Peshawer to Shah-Báz Ghari" and "Illustration of the Route from Selucia to Apobatana, as given by Isidorus of Charax" (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, London, volumes VIII, 1846, and XII, 1850).
Masson's work was peculiarly distinctive and valuable. A shrewd observer of all matters political, economic, scientific, and social, he took the role of an Afghān traveller, clad in native garments. He lived and travelled not with the chiefs but with the people, a manner never since duplicated in Afghānistān and a method which gives "a peculiar value” to his works. There is scarcely a place in the Kābul area which he did not visit and describe. Many of the names and events he mentioned were so unfamiliar to his contemporaries that he was called "fanciful" (Calcutta Review, August 1844, page 449). For many years his work re. mained unchecked, but was finally proven to be "marvellously accurate in geographical detail” (Holdich supra, page 348). Half a century later, after twice invading and occupying Afghanistān, the British authorities possessed no knowledge of the country that they could not have obtained from Masson (Ibid., page 362). For fifteen years Masson was "an irreclaimable nomadic vagabond." His life was constantly in danger. Often he fell among thieves. Once he was stripped of clothes and money and left "destitute, a stranger in the centre of Asia....exposed....to notice, inquiry, ridicule, and insult" (Narrative, supra, 1842, I, 309.10). But if there were hardships, there were also consolations : occasionally Masson paused in his travels to comfort a lonely female in some far away corner of Asia (Ibid., I, 375).
The Court of Directors of the East India Company indicated its approval of Masson's work by a donation of £500 (India Office Collection No. 97,534) and a pension of £100 per annum, beginning in January 1845 (Minutes of the Court of Directors, January 15, 1845) Upon Masson's death in 1853 the Court of Directors gave his widow a donation of £100. (Ibid., March 15, 1854).