William Broadfoot

“ In 1876 Pelly was again in attendance on the government of India, but was soon sent to Pesháwar as envoy-extraordinary and plenipotentiary for Afghan affairs. His mission was one of many steps which preceded the outbreak of war in 1878. The amír, Sher Ali, owing to the assiduous attentions he had received from British India on one side and from Russia on the other, formed an altogether exaggerated notion of his own importance. ”

“ It was undertaken partly to fix the position of Riyádh on the map, and partly to arrange for restraining the Wahábís, whose increase of power and interference with smaller states were held to involve political danger. The Wahábís are the puritans of Islam. They laboured at first to restore and preserve the original spirit of their religion; but in course of time the attractions of temporal power obscured their spiritual aspirations, and the sect became as aggressive as it was fanatical. Their chief at the time of Pelly's visit was named Faizul, and entitled indifferently amír or imám. ”

“ On his return to India in 1861 Pelly spent a few months at Calcutta with Lord Canning, and afterwards went on a mission to the Comoro Islands. At the close of the year he became political agent and consul at Zanzibar, where he confirmed earlier treaties with the Sultan. In 1862 he was transferred to the post of political resident on the Persian Gulf, and took part in a long series of difficult negotiations with the Arabs near the coast. His journey in 1865 to Riyádh, the Wahábí capital of the highlands of Central Arabia, known as Nejd, was one of his most notable exploits. ”