Before he had been twelve months at Madras his regiment was ordered to proceed to China, and he took part in the actions at Canton and along the coast which preceded the Treaty of Nanking, receiving the Chinese war medal.

In Scinde he formed one of the fine band of officers gathered round him by that remarkable soldier and administrator, General John Jacob, who was the true founder of the "forward" school among Indian frontier politicians.

[2] In 1856 he returned to India and took up judicial work at Shikarpur, subsequently resuming the inquiry into alienated lands, and was attached to the staff of Sir Bartle Frere, then Chief Commissioner of Scinde.

In this capacity he showed much tact and energy, and when it was decided to establish overland telegraphic communication from Europe through Persia and Baluchistan to India, Colonel Goldsmid was at once selected as the man best fitted to superintend the task.

[2] From 1865 to 1870 he held the post of Government director of the Indo-European Telegraph Company, and during those six years he personally superintended the erection of the poles and the carrying of the wires across the whole extent of the Shah's kingdom.

In 1883 he left Egypt and accepted a mission from the King of the Belgians to the Congo that would have led to a permanent command in that region but for the complete breakdown of his health, which compelled him to return to England.