ABSTRACT
In September 1841, Napier relinquished command of his army. He joked with one of his sisters that if a war broke out in Punjab, he might come home with enough money to set up a school in Cheltenham. His daughters could run it, and he could spend his time drinking the waters, trying to sooth his conscience over all the people he had murdered. 1 (Indeed he was troubled by the blood spilt on the coast of China by his cousin Black Charlie – ‘and through regular robbing, if only a Chinese’. 2 ) But if there were no war in Punjab he would have a quiet time of it. He had been appointed to a regional command at Poona in the southern part of the Bombay Presidency.
