service with the Persian Shah. He remained in this employment for six years, during which period he rose to the rank of khan and a grade of colonel in the Persian army. Here he also met Claude August Court who would later accompany him on the travel to Punjab. Avitabile was rewarded for his services by two of Persia's highest decorations as Grand Commander of The Lion and Sun and of The Two Lions and Crown, but found the pay lacking. When he heard favourable notice from Jean-Baptiste Ventura of his employment in Punjab Ventura again broke up to travel further to the east. In Punjab Together with Court, Avitabile arrived in Lahore in 1827 and was hired by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. He was given a position with the artillery and put in charge of the arsenal and gun foundries. He was also given a civilian position as governor of Wazirabad. It would seem he was an able administrator, as he held the position for the next seven years and as a result, Wazirabad prospered. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa In 1834 he was appointed governor of Peshawar, an area the Maharaja had conquered from the Afghans the previous year. Where as his rule of Wazirabad is described as just and rigorous, his governorship of Peshawar is depicted as a rule of "gallows and gibbets". Avitabile boasted: "When I marched into Peshawar, I sent on in advance a number of wooden posts which my men erected around the walls of the city. The men scoffed at them and laughed at the madness of the feringhee [a disparaging local language term for Westerners], and harder still when my men came in and laid coils of rope at the foot of the posts...However, when my preparations were completed and they found one fine morning dangling from these posts, fifty of the worse characters in Peshawar, they thought different. And I repeated the exhibition every day till I had made a scarcity of brigands and murderers. Then I had to deal with the liars and tale bearers. My method with them was to cut out their tongues. When a surgeon appeared and professed to be able to restore their speech, I sent for him and cut out his tongue also. After that there was peace". With a ruthless, at times brutal, style of government, Avitabile established order in the province where he became known as