← catalogue

Private Journal of Henry Francis Brooke

by Henry Francis Brooke · English · Gutenberg #46095 · 332,723 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Private Journal of Henry Francis Brooke
    
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: Private Journal of Henry Francis Brooke

Author: Henry Francis Brooke

Editor: Mrs. Annie Brooke


        
Release date: June 25, 2014 [eBook #46095]
                Most recently updated: October 24, 2024

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46095

Credits: Produced by Brian Coe, MWS and the Online Distributed
        Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
        produced from images generously made available by The
        Internet Archive/American Libraries.)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PRIVATE JOURNAL OF HENRY FRANCIS BROOKE ***

TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES


This e-text includes a character (a small letter "a" with a macron)
that requires UTF-8 (Unicode) file encoding. If this character does not
display properly in the names "Gholām" and "Wāli" make sure
your text reader’s "character set" or "file encoding" is set to Unicode
(UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font.

Odd-numbered page headers have been retained as sidenotes. Where
possible the sidenotes have been placed between paragraphs, but when
this has not been possible, the sidenotes have been separated from the
main text by blank lines.

Minor punctuation errors repaired.

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_

 p160 I judged the enemy were thowing up replaced with
      I judged the enemy were throwing up




    FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.

          PRIVATE JOURNAL

                 OF

        HENRY FRANCIS BROOKE,

        LATE BRIGADIER-GENERAL

    COMMANDING 2ND INFANTRY BRIGADE

        KANDAHAR FIELD FORCE,

        SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN,

 FROM APRIL 22ND TO AUGUST 16TH, 1880.


 _For_......................

 _From_.....................


 DUBLIN:
 PRINTED BY WILLIAM CURWEN, 3, NASSAU STREET.

 1881.




PREFACE.


The following Journal or Diary was written by my dear Husband--to use
his own words--"for _you_, of course, first, but written in this form
_specially_ for the dear chicks, and therefore quite simple and plain,
so as to interest and amuse them; but I shall be very glad _if_ it
interests the others if you will send it the rounds, as then I need
not try to write the same story over and over again, which is very
tiresome."

When on the 20th March, 1880, being at the time Adjutant-General of
the Bombay Army, my dear Husband, to his infinite satisfaction and
delight, and full of ardour and zeal, was ordered to the Front, to take
command, as Brigadier-General, of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Kandahar,
Southern Afghanistan; knowing how deeply interested we (his wife,
and children, his mother, brothers and sisters) would be in all his
movements and actions, he conceived the idea of writing this Journal,
and most regularly week by week, as he found time to write, and as the
Indian mail arrived, did I receive it, and most eagerly was it looked
for and read. It will be seen that at first going off the wording of
it was simple so that the children might easily understand all that
their dear Father was doing, and _small_ details describing the various
stages of his journey up to Kandahar from Bombay are fully entered
into with the object of amusing and interesting them, and that they
might the more readily picture him both then, and when later on, having
reached Kandahar, and before troubles began, he amused himself by daily
rides into the neighbouring fields and orchards, and still further
into the villages and surrounding districts, not always unattended
without a certain amount of risk and danger, and thus became acquainted
_intimately_ with the country within 12 or 15 miles of Kandahar. But
as difficulties developed themselves, and were followed, first by
the lamentable defeat and retreat from the battlefield of Maiwand,
of a portion of the already too small force that was holding, what
appeared to _him_, the very false military position at Kandahar, and
ended as a climax, in the Siege of Kandahar itself, the subject matter
of the Journal necessarily became of such painful interest, that the
language of it on many points almost went beyond the comprehension of
the children, or, at any rate, was not too "simple" for their elders,
albeit only too "plain" and grievous for all to read hereafter, when
we remembered that He, whom we so dearly loved, had been besieged
within the walls of that city, and had been in _daily_ danger of losing
that life so valuable to his wife and children, and which, alas! it
was God's will--before the Kandahar garrison was relieved--_should
be_ sacrificed in the performance, in the first instance, of his
duty, as a true and ardent soldier in the service of his Queen and
country, during the sortie upon the village of Deh Khoja on the 16th
August, 1880, while in command of the attacking party; and, more
directly, in the endeavour to rescue from a cruel death a brother
officer--Captain Cruikshank of the Royal Engineers--whom he found in
the village severely wounded and unable to save himself! This sortie
had been determined upon six days before it was actually undertaken,
and strongly _then_ objected to, for various sound military reasons,
by my dear Husband, as we now know by what is written in the Journal
of the events that daily occurred during the Siege of Kandahar, and
also from friends who were there themselves, extracts from whose
letters--giving us the sad details of that ill-fated sortie--will be
found in the Appendix. These extracts speak volumes of themselves, and
need no comment from me. The manner and character of my dear Husband's
self-sacrificing death are indications in themselves of the ruling
power which influenced all his actions.

It will be seen that the Journal itself ends abruptly with the events
of the 14th August--all that happened afterwards we have learnt through
the letters of kind friends--and when the former was written it was
never intended that it should have been printed, but as all relating
to my dear Husband has _now_ become of painful interest to those most
nearly connected with him, I have been asked, and have yielded to the
temptation, to print it as it stands, for private circulation among his
nearest relations, to whom he was, in each relation of life, _without
reproach_, and who now mourn his irreparable loss.

  ANNIE BROOKE.

  Ashbrooke,
    Brookeboro',
      Ireland,
        _June 18, 1881_.




JOURNAL.

RECEIVED ORDERS TO PROCEED TO KANDAHAR.


On Saturday, the 20th March, 1880, I received the official notification
that my appointment to the command of a Brigade of the Kandahar Force
had been approved by the Viceroy, and I decided to leave for Kurrachee
by the mail steamer of the 27th, as, although I had commenced my
preparations a few days before, there was still a good deal to be done,
and many things to be got to complete the small service kit which I had
to take with me. The first thing to be thought of was some horses, as
I had only one at the time, and as the season for purchasing horses in
the Bombay market was over (the best time is November, December, and
January, when the Arabs arrive from the Persian Gulf with horses), I
knew there would be great difficulty in getting horses up to my weight.
After many fruitless visits to the various stables, I heard of a very
large and handsome Arab for sale at the stables of Addool Rahman, the
great horse dealer of Bombay, who strongly recommended me to buy him
if I was prepared to give the long price asked (£120). After seeing
him and riding him, I quite came to the conclusion he was worth the
money, and purchased him, getting him for £110. I then bought a Persian
horse out of Sir Richard Temple's stud, for which I gave £60, and with
my old friend, a chesnut Australian horse which I have now had for
four years, I felt quite made up, and requiring only a pony, which I
will get in Beloochistan. I have named the Arab horse (an iron grey)
"Akhbar," the Persian (also a grey) "Selim," and the Australian's name
is "Rufus." Before going further I must mention that I nearly lost both
my new purchases the day after they came into my stables, as the Arab
got a bad attack of colic, and the Persian got away from the man who
was leading him, and got a very bad cut on his hind leg from some wire
paling, but fortunately both got better much more quickly than I hoped,
and seem very happy and comfortable in their stalls on board this ship
to-day (S.S. "Umballa," at sea March 28th). The next thing to do was to
find servants, and in this I think I have been fortunate, having got a
quiet Portuguese as general servant, to take care of my clothes, cook,
and make himself generally useful. He is to get 25 rupees a month, his
clothes and food. Each horse has its groom, and they seem good sort of
men, but there is not much choice, as one has to take pretty much what
can be got, as there is not much desire among this class of men to see
foreign parts. They

[Sidenote: Preparations for Kandahar.]

each get 15 rupees a month, and their clothes and food. After the
horses and servants were procured the next consideration was how to
get all the things I wanted to take with me into the limit of weight
allowed us by the Regulations. I have, of course, considerably more
than other officers, but even so I find it quite impossible to manage
all I should like to do, so I have brought about 100 lbs. over my
weight, as I can easily take any quantity I like as far as the railway
goes (_i.e._, to Sibi), and I am told beyond that I shall perhaps be
able to hire some private carriage to take the extra quantity on to
Kandahar, and certainly to Quetta, where it can be left, and sent on
after me to Kandahar, when the press of sending up troops is over.
Even with this extra weight I have been obliged, of course, to limit
greatly my desires and wants, but I hope I have got together a fairly
compact kit with nothing but what is absolutely necessary in it. First
of all I have two very small trunks, which contain my clothes (all of
which are uniform), shirts, &c., &c. I have, as a great treat, brought
two white shirts, to be worn on high days and holidays, as a change
from the coloured flannel shirts which, though useful and appropriate
for the occasion, are articles of dress I dislike very much. As the
cold season is now past, and it is heat rather than cold we shall
suffer from, it has not been necessary to bring up warm clothing,
although, of course, I have a few warm things in case of meeting sudden
changes of temperature which is quite possible. General Hogg, the
Quartermaster-General, presented me with an excellent breech-loading
revolver, and I have purchased a sword belt of the kind called the "Sam
Browne Belt" (having been invented by General Sir Sam Browne), as it is
so arranged that without inconvenience the pistol and ammunition can be
carried on it, and the sword itself can be arranged according to one's
pleasure, for riding or walking, which is a great convenience. The
Government carry for me 200 lbs. weight of tents (for other officers
only 100 lbs.), so I have purchased two tents, one for myself and the
other

[Sidenote: Service kit for Kandahar.]

for the servants. My tent is 9 feet by 8, and has a double top as a
protection against the sun, and a sort of small verandah on one side,
which can be used as a bath-room. The furniture of the tent consists
of a bed 6 feet long and 2 feet 3 inches wide, a small folding table
and one chair. When I get to Kandahar, if obliged to live in a tent,
I will, of course, supplement this scanty supply by such articles of
native manufacture as I can get. I have a block tin basin, but no tub,
as that is too bulky and heavy, and the custom on the march is to
have the water-carrier (Bheestie) to empty a skin of water over one,
which, though not so comfortable as a marble bath, answers all the
purposes very well. My cooking utensils are so arranged as to go into
a strong basket 2 feet high and 12 inches in diameter. In this there
are 3 saucepans, which fit one into the other, a kettle, a stewpan, a
frying-pan, and a pewter teapot, and 2 teacups and saucers pack into
the saucepans, and 2 soup plates and 2 dinner plates, enamelled iron,
go into the stewpan. In my luncheon basket are 3 knives, 3 forks, 3
spoons, and a couple of glasses, so on a pinch I can give a dinner
party of _two_, without resorting to the usual fashion, which is that
when you are asked to dinner in camp you bring your own knives, forks,
plates, glass, and generally your chair, your host supplying only the
table, food, and, if he is a very good manager and very generous,
drink. Of course as the country gets more opened up, native traders
will push forward, and everything one can want will be procurable,
although, of course, at exorbitant prices; and even now I hear
almost anything can be bought at Quetta, and a good number of things
at Kandahar. My establishment and kit are therefore constituted as
follows:--

  1 General Man Servant,
  3 Native Grooms,
  3 Horses,
  2 Tents,
  2 Trunks,
  1 Table,
  1 Bed,
  1 Chair,

Cooking Utensils and Plates, Glasses, Knives and Forks for two. I
have brought up with me a dozen case of whiskey and two small boxes
containing a carefully selected assortment of stores to eke out the
rations on the march. I have brought some soups, some chocolate and
milk, biscuits, sardines, macaroni, tea, pickles and sauces. How far
I shall be able to get these three little boxes I don't know, but
at the worst they can easily be got to Quetta, and after that must
follow me as they can. On the whole, I am quite satisfied with all my
arrangements, especially with my horses, which, if I can only land them
safely at Kurrachee (a very troublesome business) and get them to the
end of the Railway journey without hurt, will, I think, turn out well,
and I am sure I hope so, as all one's efficiency and usefulness (to say
nothing of one's comfort and safety) depends on being well mounted,
and being able to move about rapidly and see everything for oneself.
My saddles (each horse has his own) are all fitted with arrangements
for carrying coats, rugs, &c., &c., and extras of all sorts, and during
the march the horses I am not riding will have to carry their own
clothing, and also that of the horse I ride and of the Syces (native
grooms). It will be quite a delightful change to me, after eight years
continuous office work day after day from ten till five, to live an
active life constantly in the saddle and knocking about, and I feel
sure the change will be very good for me in every way. I have brought
with me a Persian Grammar and Dictionary, and intend, when settled
at Kandahar, to work up a little Persian which might prove useful to
me some day or other. The last week at Bombay was very busy, as, in
addition to my preparation for a start, I wanted to keep up my work to
the last, and leave nothing unfinished, which I am glad to think I did.
I had farewell dinners to go to every night, and indeed had not nights
enough nearly to enable me to accept all the invitations I received. I
must not forget to say that among other superfluities which I have left
behind me at Bombay, are my razors and shaving brush, as I don't intend
to use either till I return to civilization. To-day is the second day
without shaving, and I am very glad to feel that I have only men in
the same stage as myself to meet, as one feels very dirty and scrubby,
and will continue to do so for the next month at least, especially
as I have had my hair and whiskers very well cropped, which, if not
becoming, is certainly very convenient.


On SATURDAY, the 27th, at 6 o'clock, I went down to the Dock to see
my precious horses embarked, and found Alfred Christopher had arrived
before me and was superintending their embarkation, which we managed
without any difficulty, and then drove back to the Camp, where we
breakfasted with Colonel and Mrs. Wardrop, and at 10 a.m. embarked in
the Steamer "Umballa" for Kurrachee. At the embarking place several
of my friends had come to see me off, and General Aitchison, Colonel
Maude, and Colonel Wardrop came off to the ship with me and remained
until we were going to sail. On board, besides myself, there is Colonel
Anderson, who commands one of the Native Infantry Regiments at
Kandahar, returning from sick leave in England; Captain Cooke-Collis,
who is going up as Brigade Major of one of the Infantry Brigades; and
a young gunner called Fox going to join his Battery at Kandahar. We
can just make up a quiet rubber at Whist, which is an advantage, as if
we can we intend to travel together all the way. There are only two
steamers in the week from Bombay to Kurrachee--one on Tuesday which
goes direct to Kurrachee in sixty hours (the distance being under 600
miles), and the one leaving on Saturday which calls in at four Ports on
the way, and takes seventy-two hours. We shall, therefore, not be at
Kurrachee till Tuesday in the forenoon, not in time, I fear, to get off
by that evening's train for "Sibi." I was rather afraid we were going to

[Sidenote: By sea to Kurrachee.]

have bad weather, but it was very fairly smooth for the first twelve
hours after leaving Bombay, but early this morning, Sunday, 28th March,
the wind freshened a good deal, and I found it difficult to get through
my dressing, and considered it advisable not to attempt to come down to
Breakfast, but to satisfy myself with a frugal meal of toast and iced
water on deck. We have just been into the little Port of Verawul where
we dropped our mails and some passengers (natives), and are now on our
way to another small place (Porebunder) where we shall be in an hour or
so. The sea is calmer again, I am glad to say, so I have been able to
manage to write. We hear that the heat in Sind, and until one gets into
the highlands near Quetta, is very great, or, at least, was so by the
latest accounts, but as it is still rather early for very great heat
even in those parts, I hope it may have cooled down a bit before we
arrive. I am a little bit nervous for fear I should be stopped at Sibi
to superintend the forward movement of troops from that place. General
Burrows is now there, and has been there for the last six weeks, and
he may have arranged to move forward on my arrival, leaving me there
till all the troops are passed (about a fortnight later). I hope this
will not be the case, but I shall not be surprised if it is, as he
has had his share of the work there, especially as Sibi (pronounced
See-bee) is, I am told, the most awful place for heat, flies, dust and
wretchedness in the whole country.


MARCH 29th.--Tolerably smooth sea, but very warm; called in at a small
Port called Mandavie where we dropped a number of native passengers,
and took in several more. As the place is most uninteresting, and the
sun was very hot, we did not attempt to land.


MARCH 30th.--A very rough time last night and this morning, consequent
on a strong head wind and confused sea, and I was very glad when we
steamed into Kurrachee Harbour about 12 o'clock noon. A telegram just
received says I am to go straight on to Kandahar.


KURRACHEE, MARCH 30th, 1880.--On arriving at Kurrachee the first object
was to get the horses on shore, which was very successfully managed,
and we had the satisfaction of seeing the whole lot safely landed
without any ill results from the Journey, or the 18 hours of heavy
weather which they had gone through before reaching Kurrachee. Knowing
that William French was busy packing for a start with us the following
evening, I was anxious, if possible, to avoid giving him the trouble
of putting me up, so went to the two hotels to try and get a room for
the night, but, failing to get into either, I had to drive to William
French's and ask shelter from him, and found him in great confusion,
but he was able to give me an empty room in which I set up my camp bed,
table, and chair, and made myself very comfortable. What I cared much
more for than a room for myself (viz., loose boxes for my horses), he
was able to give me, and this allowed of the poor beasts getting a
good roll and a rest after their 72 hours of standing on board ship,
and preparatory to 36 very uncomfortable hours in the railway the next
day. The Royal Artillery Mess was close at hand, so I had everything
necessary in the eating and drinking way without trouble. Kurrachee was
less hot than I expected to find it, and the night was actually cold.


[Sidenote: Leave Kurrachee.]

WEDNESDAY, 31st MARCH.--The journey from Bombay to Kurrachee by sea may
be looked on as the first stage on the way to Kandahar, the second
being the railway journey from Kurrachee to Sibi, a distance of about
530 miles. Till quite lately only a portion of this distance could be
done by rail, which last October only went to Sukkur, leaving 131 miles
of desolate desert, for the most part, to be traversed on horseback. In
October last it was decided to begin the railway to Kandahar, and the
work was put in the hands of Sir Richard Temple (assisted of course by
skilled engineers), who was told that no money or exertions were to be
spared to complete the line as far as Sibi, so as to avoid the awful
journey of nearly 100 miles across a sandy desert, without water and
without shade. Owing to the extraordinary energy displayed a feat was
accomplished which, I believe, has never been approached; as a train
drawn by an engine entered Sibi, 131 miles from the junction with the
old line, in 101 days from the date on which the first sod was turned,
being at the rate of 1⅓ miles of line each day. No one who has not
had to cross the great Cutchi Desert, which lies between Jacobabad and
Sibi, can, I believe, imagine what a terrible journey it was, but the
number of men and animals who have died of thirst and heat in trying to
cross it, proves very clearly the horrors of the journey. Now one goes
through it in a comfortable first-class carriage during the night, and
the discomfort and danger is a thing of the past. The train for Sibi
leaves Kurrachee at 6 p.m., at which hour our party of the "Umballa,"
reinforced by William French and his horse, left for the second stage
of our journey. The evening and night was fairly cool, and we all slept
very well all night, having passed by Hyderabad about midnight, and not
waking until we were 200 miles on our way.


[Sidenote: By rail to Sibi.]

APRIL 1st.--We had a very fair breakfast at one of the
refreshment-rooms, and were fortunate enough to have a moderately cool
day. The railway strikes the River Indus at Kotree, opposite Hyderabad,
and runs parallel with the river to Sukkur, about 10 miles short of
which places, at a station called Ruk, we turned off on to the branch
line for Sibi, which, passing through Shikarpore, reaches Jacobabad
in about 36 miles from the junction. The whole of Sind, for want of
water, is a desolate, dusty waste, with but few trees, but the whole
country covered with a low underwood which would possibly be green
were it not for the heavy coat of dust which is always on it. There
is little or no cultivation, except where water is obtainable from
canals or wells, and consequently there are but few houses or villages,
and one may go for miles without seeing a living creature. Even birds
seem to think Sind too dreadful a place to live in. Shikarpore, which
is a very large village, is a remarkable place, as poor and squalid
as it looks it is inhabited by some of the richest men in India,
native bankers, who trade with all parts of the world, having their
correspondents in every great city in Europe, Asia, and America; and
in this dirty village, in the middle of the jungles of Sind, an order
for £1,000 could be obtained on London, Paris, St. Petersburg, or New
York without the slightest difficulty. Shikarpore used in past days to
be the great mart to which all the merchandise of Central Asia came,
and from there was passed on, on the backs of camels, to Calcutta and
Bombay, and from there to Europe and America. A railway to Kandahar
will, of course, ruin Shikarpore, and even now it has begun to lose
its importance. 26 miles beyond Shikarpore we came to Jacobabad (or
the town of Jacob), so named after General Jacob, an officer of the
Bombay Army, who, some 40 years ago, established a military station at
the place which was then known as Khanpur, since which time 3 Native
Cavalry Regiments and 1 Native Infantry Regiment has always been kept
at Jacobabad, as a frontier station, to keep the wild tribes which
live in the surrounding hills in order. At Jacobabad we were met by
the officer commanding who had prepared dinner for us, which, with a
bottle of champagne, we found very refreshing, after 24 hours of dust
and heat in the train. At half-past eight o'clock, p.m., we started
again, and nine miles from Jacobabad entered on the Kutchi Desert which
proved on this occasion to be singularly cool and pleasant, and we all
slept with much satisfaction until half-past four, a.m., on the 2nd
April (Friday) when we were woke up by the cry of "Sibi," "Sibi," to
which we added "change here for Quetta and Kandahar." It was quite
cold when we arrived, and we kept under our rugs and blankets until it
began to get light, when we turned out to collect our things, and get
the horses disembarked. The line goes on to about 8 miles from Sibi to
a place called the Nari Gorge (you will see the Nari River on the map),
but as this would take us several miles to the right of the direct road
to Quetta, and into very wild and dangerous country, travellers are
required to get out at Sibi and follow the more circuitous route by the
Bolan Pass to Quetta. The

[Sidenote: Sibi described.]

first view of Sibi is not exhilarating. Sandhills everywhere, not a
blade of grass, not a tree, and not a drop of water. A few tents here
and there, huge piles of bags full of grain, a string of camels, or a
procession of creaking carts, drawn by two bullocks each, make up a
scene which, curious by itself, is made still more odd by the sight of
railway engines moving about, and all the ordinary work of a railway
station going on, as it were, in the midst of a desert. A little
further on, at the back of one of the sandhills, we came to the tent
of my friend General Burrows, who is commanding here, and hospitably
arranged to put up William French and me, and feed us while we are
here. I suppose it is hardly necessary to say that putting up in this
part of the world does not mean a nicely furnished bed-room and a
comfortable sitting-room, and all the luxuries of the season, but,
even so, it means a good deal. First of all a tub of water and lots
of soap, a cup of tea, and a right to put your camp bed either in the
tent, or outside of it, according as the night proves hot or cold. At
present the heat at Sibi during the day in tents is unbearable, and
so all the Europeans in the place congregate in a small three-roomed
shed, which has been built for the purpose, and in which a rough kind
of mess is kept for all comers. I am writing in this place now (as
tents won't be possible till five o'clock in the evening), and writing
under the circumstances is not very easy, which must be my excuse for
any shortcomings in to-day's portion of my journal. On arrival here
we heard that an officer had been set on by a tribe, supposed up to
this time to have been friendly, and had been killed. This officer is
Captain Howe Showers, who was A.D.C. to his father, General Showers,
when I was A.A.G. at Calcutta, in 1865-66. It appears that he was
passing through a part of the country to the right of the road from
Sibi to Quetta, and thinking it quite safe had reduced his escort from
50 Native Cavalry (of an irregular levy he had just raised) to 12 or 15
men. At a spot in the hills called Chappur the party were fired on by
a large party of men, who had up to that moment been concealed in the
rocks. At the first volley Showers fell dead, as did also two of his
men, and the remainder immediately retired, which could not be wondered
at, seeing they were really no better men (probably worse) than the
much stronger party who were safely posted in the rocky gorge of the
mountain. We hear by telegraph from Quetta that one of the _friendly_
native chiefs succeeded in securing poor Showers' body and those of his
two men, and is bringing them into Quetta. An avenging force is to-day
being concentrated at Chappur to punish this treacherous attack, and, I
hope, will prove successful. The operations along this country are in
General Burrows' hands, and he is proceeding there to-morrow, and as he
is receiving good reinforcements from India, I have no doubt he will
quickly mete out the proper punishment to all concerned; though for my
own part, had I been commanding here, I think I should not have allowed
any attack to be made until I had some artillery at my disposal, and
then only under my own command, or that of some selected officer. I
think the state of the tribes along these Marri Hills is such as to
cause some anxiety, as though not powerful for real harm, they are
sufficiently strong to be very mischievous, and by constant raids and
attacks may succeed in frightening away the workmen on the line of
railway now being pushed on from Nari Gorge through Hurnai to Gwal.
These places will be seen on the map, as also a place called Thal, or
Tull, which is one of the positions which we hold in some strength. I
may as well mention that a very strong difference of opinion exists
among people who are in a position to judge as to the proper line for
the railway to take from Sibi to Quetta--one side, led by Sir Richard
Temple, have advocated the line by Nari (I see these places are not
marked on my map, but a place called Baghao is in much the same line),
Harnai, and Gwal, in preference to the one through the Bolan Pass. The
former is shorter and easier in an engineering point of view, but it
is through a country which, if not actually hostile, which many say
it is, is certainly unfriendly. The latter, on the contrary, has many
engineering difficulties, but is through a comparatively safe country.
The advocates of the former route have carried the day, and I fear
poor Showers' death goes some way to prove that those who thought the
other route would be the best in the end were not very far wrong. I
am now sorry that I am not to take General Burrows' place here, as I
think there will be a good deal to interest one in these parts for some
time. We have settled to march very early to-morrow morning, and hope
to get away from this so as to be on our new ground and tents pitched
before the sun can make itself felt. The first four days after leaving
Sibi will be hot, but after that we shall get into a more reasonable
temperature. Our route from here lies through Kirta, Beebee-Nani, and
Sir-i-Bolan, all of which are shown on the map I sent two mails ago.
(The figures on that map, under the names of places, show their heights
above the sea level in feet).


[Sidenote: Sibi--End of the railway.]

FRIDAY, 2nd APRIL.--At Sibi there are enormous depots of all sorts
of commissariat stores, provisions, and clothing, both for Native
and English troops, all of which have had to be transported great
distances, especially the grain and the clothing, as most of the former
comes from Bengal, and nearly all the latter from England, or at
nearest from Bombay. Thousands of pounds of grain is daily used to feed
the transport animals who are in thousands--camels, horses, bullocks
(both for carts and packs), ponies and donkeys. Besides these there
are some 2,500 to 3,000 cavalry and artillery horses, and about 1,000
horses, the property of officers, to be fed every day, and as there is
little or no cultivation in Afghanistan, some idea may be formed of the
arrangements, the labor, and the expense which are required to keep
this one matter of the forage supply in working order. Armies fighting
in Europe can expect to draw a good proportion of their supplies from
the country in which they are operating, but the fact that almost
nothing required by European troops, and very few of the articles
required by native soldiers are to be got in Afghanistan, renders a war
such as that we are now engaged in, a fearfully difficult and expensive
matter. We dined at the rough camp mess at Sibi at which 15 officers
were present, and went to bed (in the open air) at 9 p.m., as we had
to be up at 1 o'clock to pack our camels for a start at 2 a.m., as we
proposed to march 14 miles to Muskaff.


[Sidenote: Preparations for marching.]

SATURDAY, 3rd APRIL.--I was woke at 1 o'clock, and after dressing
almost in the dark began to have the camels loaded, but everything
was against us. First of all, for the 6 camels sent for mine and
Wm. French's baggage, only one camel driver appeared, and he seemed
perfectly ignorant of everything connected with camels, and more
especially with that most delicate of arrangements, the loading of
a camel; and to make matters worse he proved to be a wild villager
from the neighbouring hills, whose language we could not understand,
nor could he understand us. Then nearly all the ropes and harness
required for the pack saddles were wanting, and the saddles themselves
were of the most antiquated patterns. After many delays these minor
difficulties were partially overcome, and after at least an hour spent
in vain attempts to load the 6 camels, we had the proud satisfaction
of seeing two of the lot ready for a start, when a demon entered into
the two loaded animals, who rose from the ground (camels sit down to be
loaded) and kicked the whole of their loads off. In the first instance
this was rather ludicrous, and we laughed at it, and began again; but
when 4 o'clock came, and daylight (which meant intense heat) began
to appear, and yet not one camel could be induced to let the loads
remain on their backs, things looked serious, and we despaired of
getting off at all. However, we determined to make one final effort,
and this time were so far successful that we made a start at 5 a.m.,
meeting the rest of our party about a mile out of Sibi, and heard to
our distinct satisfaction that they had been equally unfortunate, and
had only succeeded in getting off after many failures. The only wonder
was that we got off at all, as it turned out that the camels had only
been purchased two or three days, and were perfectly untrained. Our
satisfaction at effecting a move was but of short duration, as we had
not gone a mile before half the loads were on the ground, and had to be
repacked again and again. The sun was by this time too high to allow
us to think of our completing the distance originally intended, so at
8 o'clock we halted for the day on the banks of the Nari River, where
there is a depot of transport animals to supply changes of bullocks for
the cart train which passes daily each way between Sibi and Quetta. To
carry this out there are reliefs of bullocks every 6 or 7 miles, and
the arrangement works with wonderful regularity. We could not afford
time to march only 6 or 7 miles a day, so could not avail ourselves of
the cart train, but are condemned to the daily trial of loading camels,
than which nothing is more trying to the temper, I am bound to say.
The transport officer at the halting place was good enough to allow
us to share his hut, and so saved us going into tents in which the
thermometer during the day stood at 120 degrees, and even in our kind
friend's hut was over 100 degrees, a heat which is required to be felt
to be understood, as the entire absence of air, except now and then a
hot blast, as if out of a furnace, made it most oppressive. Towards 6
o'clock it grew wonderfully

[Sidenote: First halt on the march.]

cooler, and at 6.30, when we sat down to dinner at a table placed in
the open, it was quite delightful. This was the first of our mess,
and, considering we were in the wilds, we did very well, having some
preserved soup, a leg of mutton, and curry of sardines--I don't,
however, recommend the latter to anyone who is not very hungry and
hopeless of getting anything else--whiskey and water--very little
of the former, and a very bad quality of the latter--completed the
sumptuous repast. Just as dinner was over a noise was heard from the
line of horses to which we all rushed to find that Mr. "Selim" (who
is a pugnacious sort of gentleman) had drawn his picket pegs and was
doing his best to completely destroy poor "Rufus," who being picketed
was powerless to retaliate. For about ten minutes we were afraid we
should lose "Selim" altogether, as the night was dark, and if he had
rushed away into the open plain we should never have seen him again.
Fortunately he was too anxious to return to finish his fight with
Rufus, and we managed at last to catch him, neither horse being,
wonderful to say, anything the worse. The fact is the horses are all
quite wild after their long confinement and want of work, and this is a
thing three or four heavy marches will all too quickly cure. To pay him
out for his games, I decided to give "Selim" the pleasure of carrying
me the first ten miles the following morning, "Akhbar" bringing me in
the last five miles, and so giving "Rufus" an off day to allow him to
recover the effects of his bites. We turned into bed at 8.30, sleeping,
as usual in these parts, in the open air.


APRIL 4th.--After several false starts, and many difficulties in
loading the camels, we started at 3.15 a.m. for a 15 miles march,
and as I wanted to inspect the transport and commissariat depots at
Muskaff, I rode on in front with a couple of the men of my escort
(I have a native officer and 20 men of one of our native cavalry
regiments, the Poona Horse, as an escort to Kandahar), and having
a second horse for a change half way had a very pleasant canter on
"Selim" (the first time I had ridden him), whom I like very much
indeed. The two colonels followed at a quieter pace, leaving Captain
Collis and Mr. Fox to bring up the rear. It was a lovely morning, and
the road was very nice for cantering, and I enjoyed the ride and the
attending circumstances very much. After inspecting at Muskaff, I got
on my arab ("Akhbar") and had a good opportunity of trying his paces,
which will be very good, but at present he is quite raw and untrained,
and gives one plenty to do to watch his antics, which, however, are
all of the purest kind of play, as, like all well-bred arabs, he is as
gentle as possible. The latter part of the march into Pir-Chokey was
very dusty and extremely uninteresting, and uncommonly hot. I picked up
the colonels (who had passed while I was looking at the transport and
commissariat depots at Muskaff),

[Sidenote: March into Pir-Chokey.]

about two miles from the end of the march, which we completed
at a quarter to 8 o'clock, but it was past 10 when the baggage came up,
the loads having frequently been thrown by the camels during the march,
so our two young friends who were in charge arrived thoroughly tired
and done up. A little tea and a rest, however, soon put them right; and
when at 6 o'clock in the evening, when the sun was setting, we all got
a plunge into the Bolan River, which is a clear and extremely rapid
running stream, we found ourselves as fit as possible, notwithstanding
that the day had been even hotter than the previous ones. Pir-Chokey
is a station established by us exactly at the mouth of the Bolan
(N.B.--1st syllable _short_; 2nd long) Pass as a resting and feeding
place for the transport animals and troops proceeding up and down. The
Bolan Pass is the only really practicable passage through the range of
mountains which separates India from Beloochistan and Central Asia, and
has been used for ages by the caravans coming to India from all parts
of Asia. Until we went up by it to Kandahar in 1839, '40, '41, the road
was a mere track through the bed of the river, and on that occasion we
did very little to improve it, and never dreamt that 40 years later we
should have to make a road practicable for wheeled carriage through it;
but this is what we have done, and carts now run from Sibi to Quetta
and still further on the road to Kandahar. It must not be, however,
supposed that the road is of the appearance or quality that people
at home would call a road, as all that has been aimed at is to make a
track clear from stones or serious inequalities along which carts can
go. At Pir-Chokey are stored thousands of pounds of grain of all sorts,
flour, rice, sugar, tea, potatoes, &c., &c., indeed everything required
to ration both man and beast, and many extras also, as we were able to
obtain from the Government stores there, on payment, such things as
Ropf's concentrated soups, French preserved vegetables, &c., &c. There
is a shed for the use of officers and a couple for the men, as there is
at nearly all the stages in the Pass, which is a very good arrangement,
as it saves us pitching tents, and the huts are much cooler than tents
during the day; and as dew or damp are unknown here everyone sleeps in
the open at night. We were in bed at half-past 8, and I was so dead
tired that I never woke through all the row of the packing, but had the
satisfaction when I woke to find the camels gone and everything packed.
Captain Collis, my Brigade Major, is very good in this way, and does
a great deal for me, which my orderly officer would have to do if I
had one, and as I might have had, had General Warre been agreeable and
allowed me to take the officer I wanted.


[Sidenote: March out of Pir-Chokey.]

APRIL 5th.--As we had a very long march (between 19 and 21 miles) we
had to move off very early, the more especially as I had two sets of
depots to inspect on the way; we had let the baggage have three hours
start of us, having sent the native officer and 16 men with it, keeping
only 4 men for ourselves, as we considered our five selves good for
any number of the cowardly marauders who hang about the Pass, but who
never seem to venture to attack armed parties, but always to swoop down
on one or two unarmed natives if they get the chance. 500 yards out of
Pir-Chokey we had to ford the Bolan River, and the winding course it
takes may be imagined from the fact that in the first 10 miles of the
march we forded it 18 times. It is, however, never more than a couple
of feet deep, and from ten to fifty yards wide. The whole of the road
from Pir-Chokey to Dirwaza (78 miles) is called the Bolan Pass, and
most of the way is properly so called, though there is a great plain
of 20 miles across, which, though surrounded in the distance by hills,
has none of the appearance of what one understands as a Pass. For the
first 12 miles the road is indeed a pass or gorge in the mountains,
as in places the cliffs are not more than 60 to 100 yards apart, and
rarely open out to more than 150 to 200 yards apart. Passing along
this in the early morning with the moon just setting is very striking
and dismal, as the hills, which are very peculiarly shaped, are very
high and abrupt, and are absolutely bare of vegetation of any kind,
except that the banks of the river are here and there fringed with
Pampas grass and Oleanders, the latter just now in full blow, and very
sweet. It is quite the most desolate, forsaken scene I have ever
witnessed, and the least enlivening. It is fortunate that the tribes in
the vicinity of the Bolan Pass are fonder of rupees than of fighting,
as they could easily prevent anyone passing up if they so desired it,
but for a consideration (a very heavy subsidy, I fancy) they agree
not only not to resist our advance, but to act as the police of the
Pass, and so enable us to dispense with any great strength of soldiers
here.--I must digress for one moment to describe the circumstances
under which I write, so that allowances may be made for bad writing and
stupidity. First of all, I am in a large tent, permanently pitched, as
there is no rest hut here (Beebee-Nani, April 6th), the thermometer
is at 96°, a gale of wind is howling outside, and shaking the tent
so violently that I watch the poles with apprehension; everything is
gritty with the clouds of dust that are flying about; the flies, which
are in millions, I should say, are gifted with a pertinacity which is
quite marvellous, and insist on settling on your nose, or in your eyes
or ears; my four companions are stretched on the ground fast asleep
(I never sleep myself in the day time), and by some curious fatality
have, one and all, established themselves on their backs, and are
snoring most awfully; and last, but not least, the heat is making the
ink quite thick and preventing it running freely, and with it my ideas
also I fear. I think it will be acknowledged that any one or two of
these drawbacks would be fair excuses for not doing much writing,
so I hope the lot together will bear me harmless from criticism now
and hereafter.--To return to my story now: As the sun began to rise
the whole scene changed, and what had seemed weird and desolate now
got a color that made the scene one that I would not have missed for
any consideration; the effect altogether, of course, of the beautiful
coloring which sunrise always bring with it in the East, but which
rapidly fades as the sun gets higher. At nine miles from Pir-Chokey
I came to one of the transport stages, which I found in charge of a
sergeant of the 66th Foot, with a guard of 12 native soldiers; not
another European within ten miles of him on either side. He said it
was, of course, lonely, but he had lots to do, and that all his spare
time was given to fishing in the Bolan River, which swarms with fish of
the most confiding nature, as they greedily seize any sort of bait, and
can even be caught in the hand at night by the use of a light--a way
of catching fish not quite unknown in our own part of the world. Five
miles further on I inspected another depot, which is situated at the
end of the first part of the enclosed portion of the

[Sidenote: March into Kirta.]

Pass, after which we descended into the plain or valley of Kirta, an
extensive plain more than 20 miles across, and almost circular in
shape, the mountains rising to a considerable height all round it.
About six miles further ride brought us to the rest house of Kirta,
where we were to put up for the day, and where, on arriving, I received
the agreeable information that the camel carrying my two small trunks,
which contain every stitch of uniform, clothing, linen, towels, sheets,
socks, warm clothing, &c.,&c., in fact, everything I possess, except
what was on my back, had fallen down in one of the fords, and that
the two portmanteaus had been well under water for five minutes at
least. The first and only thing to do was to open the boxes and dry the
things (for which purpose there was no lack of sun, at any rate), and
ascertain the amount of the damage done. Every single thing was more
or less wet, but fortunately, except my cloth uniform, my few books,
and my stock of writing paper, there was little to spoil seriously; my
patrol jacket had got off wonderfully, having been well in the centre
of one box, and was only damp, and my other cloth things had not much
suffered, and the rest of the things (except my paper, books, and
papers, which are ruined) will, I daresay, be all right after they have
been washed and done up. On the whole, I got off wonderfully well,
but it was a great business unpacking everything, drying them, and
then repacking all again, which, however, I managed to do in a fairly
satisfactory way. At Kirta is another large depot for the transport and
commissariat departments, and also a rather superior kind of hut for
the accommodation of passers by. The plain of Kirta itself is one vast
scene of desolation, not a tree, or a blade of grass, and nothing but
fine sand, thickly strewn with round stones of all sizes and forms.


[Sidenote: Dust storm at Kirta.]

MONDAY, 5th APRIL, continued--At the Kirta rest-house we found a very
scientific party of engineers (Mr. Molesworth, Col. Lindsay, and
Major Peters), who had been prospecting the railway line to Kandahar,
and were returning by no means impressed with the delights, use, or
value of Afghanistan. I don't wish to form too hasty a judgment, but
I must say as far as I have gone I have seen no reason to modify the
opinions formed eighteen months ago, namely, that a more useless and
unnecessary thing than an expedition into this country could not be
imagined. Committed to it as we now are, a sudden withdrawal would be
madness, and in any case, it would be a wise man who could form an
idea as to the final results, or what and when the end will be. Up to
the present, though the days have been intensely hot, the nights have
been very pleasant, and the mornings charming, but at Kirta just as we
were looking for the change from the heat of the day to come (half-past
five o'clock), the wind suddenly chopped right round and blew a
hurricane, like a red-hot blast of a furnace, bringing with it thick
clouds of dust, which made breathing, or keeping one's eyes open almost
an impossibility. Of course I have been in many dust storms in all
parts of India, but it has never been my fortune to spend so entirely
miserable a time as we had to undergo between 5.30 on Tuesday evening,
and 8 o'clock the next morning. The rest-house has no glass in the
windows, and even had it been possible to close the wooden shutters,
they were so roughly made that they would have been useless to keep out
either the burning wind or the dust; but even the wind and dust were
preferable to the suffocation of no air at all, and so, through a very
long dark night, we could do nothing but toss about on our beds and
long for morning.


[Sidenote: March into Beebee-Nani.]

TUESDAY, APRIL 6th.--About 3 A.M. the hurricane seemed to moderate,
so we got up and dressed and set to work to pack our camels, in the
middle of which operation the gale recommenced with greater force than
ever, and made our work almost impossible; however, by 4 o'clock,
with the assistance of some men from the transport depot the work was
finished and the camels with their escort started for a nine mile
march in the teeth of the gale and dust. I waited on in the rest-house
till 6 o'clock in hopes of the weather changing when the sun rose,
but finding no change likely, had also to face the dust and wind,
and continued to ride against it for about two hours, when, getting
under the shadow of a big mountain, we ceased to get the dust and the
gale grew much cooler, and to our great relief we found a much more
bearable climate at our halting place, a little transport depot called
Beebee-Nani, where I am now writing. It cannot be called pleasant
here, but compared with the past 18 hours the change is distinctly
for the better. Desolation reigns here also, no trees or vegetation
to be seen; nothing but sand, stones, and barren rocky hills rising
in tiers one behind the other, till the last and highest range is
barely visible in the hot and dusty haze. At this halting place there
is no rest-house, but instead a good-sized tent, which answers the
purpose very well. A stream of beautiful clear water flows past the
tent, being brought in a small canal or channel (made by our troops)
from the Bolan River, which is two miles off. The water is bright, and
pure, and good, and quite cold, and is accordingly in this land of bad
and scanty water a priceless luxury to all. The hill tribes near this
are not very well-disposed, and they frequently cut off the water by
damming up the place where it leaves the river, but a small party of
native soldiers, who are at once sent out, soon hunts the enemy off,
and sets the water flowing again. We are now beginning to ascend, and
it is decidedly cooler than it was (speaking comparatively), but the
air is unpleasantly dry and harsh, and our lips and skin generally are
suffering accordingly, all the more, no doubt, that of late we have
been accustomed to the damp, relaxing climate of Bombay. This morning
we passed many of the migratory tribes who, during the winter, leave
the districts round Quetta on account of the cold and go with their
flocks and herds down towards Sibi, where they remain till it gets too
hot, when they return to Quetta. They are wretched-looking people,
evidently very poor in everything except children, of whom there seems
to be no lack. Their whole household goods are carried on camels, and
the women and children trot along behind seemingly very happy and
light-hearted. On one camel to-day we saw an uncommonly pretty young
donkey rolled up in a blanket with his head only to be seen, looking
quite pleased with himself, and being balanced on the other side of the
camel by a jolly but extremely dirty baby of 8 or 9 months old. They
make very picturesque groups these people, but certainly among them the
men carry off all the good looks, as the women seem to be singularly
plain and unprepossessing. We are getting very bad hay for our horses
now, which is very unfortunate, but as it has all to be brought from
places miles away we ought, I suppose, to be very thankful that we get
any at all. So far my three are very well, and I am quite pleased with
my new purchases, and very glad, indeed, that I brought my old friend
up with me, as he is a most pleasant horse to ride. To give an idea of
the sort of country this is I may mention that the ground is too hard
to allow of our driving in even iron picketing pegs for the horses,
and we have therefore to collect a heap of heavy big stones and fasten
their picketing ropes to these!


[Sidenote: March to Mach.]

WEDNESDAY, 7th APRIL.--We had a very long march before us (17 miles)
to a place called Mach (pronounced Much), so started off the heavier
portion of our baggage and all our servants in charge of half of my
escort at 10 o'clock the previous night, keeping only 2 camels to carry
our camp beds and bedding, and the warm sheets and rugs of the horses
we were to ride. We had a fairly good night's sleep, although the
high wind was not pleasant, and towards morning became bitterly cold,
for which some of the party were not prepared, and were consequently
very cold indeed. I had my two thick blankets, and found them nothing
too much, although 12 hours previously we had been undergoing a heat
of nearly 100°. These changes are very trying to people who are not
thoroughly strong, but barring slight colds all round, we have not
suffered on this occasion. Colonel Anderson's horse had hurt itself, so
I had to give him a mount on "Rufus," which, as he weighs 15 stone and
the march was 17 miles, I would altogether have preferred not to do,
but as the alternative was his walking while I had 2 led horses I could
not possibly have done otherwise. The road for the first 8 miles took
us over a barren, desolate plain, across which the cold wind whistled
and drove in a way that made us all wish much we had kept our great
coats out, and which made us hail with delight the appearance of the
sun, which up to this had been our greatest enemy. Eight miles from
Bibi Nani we came to a small transport depot called Abigoom, where I
changed my horse "Akhbar" for Selim, who had gone on with the heavy
baggage the night previously. Here Captain Collis, who had been riding
some way in rear, came up to tell me that one of my Syces (grooms)
declared he was so seriously ill that he could not possibly go on, even
though he knew that if left behind by himself on the side of the road
he would probably be murdered by some of the ruffians who hang about
to wreak their vengeance on any one who is defenceless. Fortunately I
was able to get a cart and pair of bullocks at the transport depot at
Abigoom, and we went back and picked the man up and brought him into
Mach, and he is all right to-day. I don't think there ever was much
the matter with him beyond having eaten too much, which these people,
now that they are fed by us and not by themselves, are very ready to
do. The morning, once the sun was up, was most enjoyable, although the
country we passed through was of the same desolate, dreary sort that is
met in this part of the world. Brown arid mountains and red clay plains
covered thickly with enormous boulders; no trees, no water (except
when now and then we cross the Bolan River), no habitations, and no
cultivations. As a sergeant of the 66th, who was in charge of one of
the transport depots, said to me, "Why, sir, there are no birds in this
awful country, and when I see a country as has no birds I think badly
of that country." The poor fellow's views of life and of the pleasures
of campaigning had been jaundiced I fancy by a lonely residence for 4
months in a desert without a single European near him, although he said
on the whole he did not dislike it, as he had heaps to do all day, and
the nights were much too short for the amount of sleep he would like
to have had. Ascending gradually from Abigoom we reached an elevation
of 3,500 feet at Mach, and found ourselves in an European climate,
which Captain Collis and I celebrated by drinking hot whiskey punch for
dinner!!

[Sidenote: Receive English letters at Mach.]

Mach is quite a big place, and there is a post office and telegraph
office there, and a good rest house, and we spent a very comfortable
time there, especially when we recollected the disagreeables of the
previous days. We were able to replenish our larder and stores from the
Commissariat, getting from them bread, mutton, tea, sugar, potatoes,
preserved soups, &c., &c. To my great delight I got my English
letters here,--those of the 12th March, which had reached Bombay 30th
March,--and we posted our letters for home, as, although it was a
little too early, it was our only chance, as there is no other post
office till we get to Quetta, and the English mail will have left that
place before we arrive. As the next day's march was not a long one we
decided to have a good sleep, and not start till 4 A.M. (which meant
getting up at 3 o'clock), and as we all turned in at half-past 8, we
had had a very fair night of it, when at 3 A.M. on Thursday, April
8th, I was woke by Colonel Anderson with the extremely unpleasant
news that the native officer of the escort reported that the whole
of our camel drivers had disappeared--run away to their homes it was
supposed. The question was what was to be done, as we had no wish to
lose a day at Mach, so I sent and woke up the transport officer (a
smart young fellow of the 15th Foot), who before I at all expected it,
was in the rest-hut fully dressed, asking to see "the General," who
being extremely cold was quite invisible among his blankets. I had a
further search then made for the camel men, but it was clear they had
bolted, so I was forced very unwillingly to take advantage of my being
"the General Sahib," and take carts to take us into Quetta. Carts are
not, as a rule, given to officers, as they are used for Commissariat
stores, and so up to this time I have resisted the temptation of
appropriating some (they are far pleasanter means of carrying baggage
than camels), not wishing to have any advantages over other officers,
especially at the expense of the General Transport Service; but now
that the camel men had deserted I felt I might fairly take carts, as
it was clearly not advantageous that I should remain idle for days at
a place like Mach. I, however, kept the demands of my friends and my
servants as low as possible, and we succeeded in getting off without
reducing perceptibly the carrying power of the transport, or causing
any stores to be delayed. Carts drawn by bullocks are very slow, as
they barely do more than 1¾ miles an hour, but they are very sure
and steady, and require no elaborate packing as camels do. On the other
hand they are very liable to break down or to fall over the precipices,
so their possession is not an unalloyed satisfaction. On the whole I
think if I had good camel men I would prefer camels. At Mach we found
a Major Greig of the Artillery, trying to work his way up alone,
taking advantage of any convoys or escorts he could meet, and as this
was very dismal and very slow, I asked him to join our party, which
now numbers 6. It was 5 o'clock when we succeeded in getting away from
Mach, and it was then so cold that I rode the first half of the way
in my great coat. The road was very up and down, and at places very
steep, but still wonderfully good; the country still as barren and
uninteresting as ever. Four miles from Mach we came to a place called
Sir-i-Bolan, which means the head or source of the Bolan, and here are
the springs from which the river rises. They rush out of the solid rock
in a splendid stream, but curiously one of the jets is distinctly some
degrees hotter than the others are.


[Sidenote: Maidenhair Fern--Sir-i-Bolan.]

THURSDAY, 8th APRIL.--The place (_i.e._ Sir-i-Ab) is covered with
Maidenhair Ferns, a piece of which I enclose; I have also taken a root
of it, and intend to send it to Florence to see if she can force it
back into life, as a plant of Maidenhair Fern from the source of the
Bolan would be a kind of curiosity, I dare say.[FOOTNOTE.--The Fern
mentioned above is now in the Stove House at Narrow Water, and has
grown to quite a large healthy plant.] After passing Sir-i-Bolan, the
road led through a very narrow valley, with high and precipitous cliffs
on both sides, quite overhanging the road, and not more than 50 yards
apart at some places. The effect is wild, and the morning air being
sharp and fresh, with a bright sun, the ride was quite enjoyable.
Our halting place for the day was Dozan (or the place of thieves),
which is a good sized Commissariat and Transport Station, possessing
a good rest-house and quite a large number of people of sorts. There
is not, however, naturally any water here, but we have brought it by
an aqueduct from some spring 2 miles off, and there is now a plentiful
and excellent supply--the last really good water we shall see for some
days. This station is in charge of a very nice young fellow of the
83rd, named Adye, quite a boy, but a very good style of fellow, and
one who does his work well, as his bullocks, carts, and everything in
his charge shows. The life these young fellows lead does not seem very
delightful, but it is wonderful how clearly one can see which are the
really good officers who take interest in their work, and have no time
or inclination for grumbling about themselves, and I am delighted to
say the great majority are of this sort, indeed it is the exception
when the reverse is the case, and as the same can truly be said of
the Sergeants similarly employed (all quite young men), I don't think
the army is going to the dogs quite so much as dismal prophets would
have us think. It is also most satisfactory to see how well our native
soldiers (non-commissioned officers and men) on this detached and
independent employment get on, as they develope in intelligence and
readiness in a remarkable way, and show that what they really want (as
do our English soldiers) is less nursing and coddling, and care, and
being made at all times to do more for themselves than they now are.


[Sidenote: Dozan--Cantonment--Abandoned.]

FRIDAY, 9th APRIL.--After starting off our baggage we took a detour
to the right to visit a plateau about 1,000 feet higher than Dozan,
where, during last summer, General Phayre's brigade had been encamped,
and where, thinking the place would become a permanent station, he
had expended much labor and trouble in making roads and laying out
the future cantonment. Now, however, the troops are withdrawn and
the place is deserted. Among other things which had been made was an
excellent lawn tennis ground which looked very English and civilized in
the midst of the desolation. At this place are the springs from which
the halting place is supplied with water, and here, as elsewhere in
this extraordinary country, it is wonderful to see the rush of water
which pours out of the solid rock, reminding one (all the surrounding
circumstances having also a considerable similitude) of the water
rushing out of the Rock when struck by Moses during the travels of
the Israelites in the Wilderness. We rejoined the road about 4 miles
from Dozan, and for 4 miles our way continued through the narrowest
and wildest part of the Bolan Pass, till at 8 miles from Dozan we
crossed an abrupt ridge of hills which lie across the mouth of the
Pass, and descended into a plain surrounded by mountains the tops of
which were still tipped with snow. Two miles farther on we came to
our halting place, which is called Darwaza, or the door or gate, this
being the entrance to the Bolan Pass, the journey through which we had
then completed. There was a good rest-house at Darwaza, and a small
fort, inside of which we were glad to find shelter for our horses and
servants, as a piercingly cold wild wind was coming from the mountains,
and there were decided threatenings of snow or rain, and very shortly
after we arrived it did begin to rain. I had an anxious day with
my Australian horse as he was very ill, and, being almost without
medicines, I was afraid I should have lost him. He had not taken at all
to the bad grass or hay which we have had through the Pass, and had
not been really well for some days. This was what I feared in bringing
him with me, as Australian horses are notoriously dainty about their
food, whereas Arabs eat anything and seem to flourish on anything. We
tried all the native remedies at our disposal, and the old horse pulled
through all right, and before night was able to eat a bran mash and was
quite out of danger. He has, however, got a cracked heel, the result
of the cold dry wind after crossing the numerous fords which we have
had to pass over daily, and I fear I shall not get much riding out of
him, which is a disappointment, as he is a steady old boy who goes
along without any trouble, while the other two are young and foolish,
and as yet not contented to plod along at a walking pace for any time.
The evening at Darwaza turned out very wet and cold, and the night
threatened to be so bad that we had to give up the idea of an early
march which we had intended to make, so as to get over the long and
wearisome journey which lay between us and our next halting place.
Darwaza is one of the highest points on the road to Kandahar (the
highest except the crossing of the Khojak Pass), being 6,000 feet above
the sea level, and until a month ago the whole country round had been
covered with 18 inches of snow, some of which still remained on the
mountains near.


[Sidenote: March across the Dusht-i-Bedaulat Plain.]

SATURDAY 10th APRIL.--We started at 6 a.m. to march to Sir-i-ab, to
reach which place we had to cross a great plain (16 miles across)
which, owing to its miserable and wretchedly desolate appearance, is
called the Dusht-i-bedaulat (the au has the sound of ow) or the plain
of poverty or wretchedness, and certainly it well bears out its name,
as for mile after mile nothing is to be seen but sand and stones, and
desolation everywhere. No one lives in the place, and no one crosses it
except when obliged to do so, as almost always a howling wind, which
is either hot as a furnace or cold as ice, drives across it, carrying
clouds of dust with it, and making the journey not only wretched but
even, to weakly people and animals, dangerous. There is no water
from Darwaza to Sir-i-ab, a very serious consideration in the hot
weather. We, however, were singularly fortunate, as the storm of the
previous day had spent itself, and the rain had laid the dust, and
we crossed the Dusht without the slightest inconvenience, indeed with
some enjoyment, as the morning was lovely and fresh, and the mountains
covered with the snow, which had fallen in the night on their higher
peaks, were looking beautiful, and took away in a great degree from the
otherwise desolate appearance of the scene. As we approached Sir-i-ab,
we saw more signs of civilization (though of a very rude kind) than
we had met since we left Jacobabad, as there were numerous villages
to be seen, each surrounded by its orchards, containing peach, plum,
and mulberry trees, which were all in full leaf, and looked green and
bright to us who had not seen a patch of green for so many days. At
Sir-i-ab we put up in a deserted village, in which was established
our Commissariat and Transport Depot, and a few houses which were set
apart and kept clean for the use of officers and men passing through.
The people to whom the village belong had migrated to the lower
regions during the winter, and were now on their way back, and had
sent word that after the middle of this month they would require the
place for their own residence, and we were, in consequence, clearing
out our Commissariat Stores and Transport animals into a camp outside
the village. Although the people had left the village for their own
convenience, as they would have done whether we had been there or not,
we had actually been paying them rent for the empty houses, and now at
their request were quietly submitting to be turned out. This is the
curious way we make war, and add to the terrible expenses of it quite
unnecessarily. An Afghan village is a collection of mud huts, with flat
mud roofs, and so arranged, and the huts joined together with high
walls, as to form a kind of Fort, as in this country every man's hand
is against his neighbour's, and every one goes armed and prepared for
treachery and violence. The people are a distinctly warlike race, and
fight bitterly among themselves.


[Sidenote: March into Quetta.]

SUNDAY, 11th APRIL.--A short march of 7 miles took us into Quetta,
which looked charming as we rode into it at 8 o'clock in the morning,
the air bright and fresh, and the sun shining just sufficiently to take
the sharpness out of the air. There were quantities of purple crocuses
in flower, and the hawthorn was covered with flower and looked very
home-like indeed. Quetta lies in a small circular plain about 5 miles
across, surrounded by high mountains, and well watered by streams of
clear water which come down from the mountains and enable the people
to cultivate their orchards and fields most successfully. Originally
there was only a moderately sized native town at Quetta, with, from a
native point of view, a very strong Fort to defend it; but since we
have occupied the place (now some 4 years ago) houses after the English
fashion have sprung up, and the place is assuming the appearance of an
Indian Station. We have taken over the Fort and use it as an Arsenal,
for which purpose it serves sufficiently well, though it would be quite
useless as a Fortification against any enemy who possessed guns of any
kind. The native name of Quetta is Shawl or Shalkot, and it is by the
latter name that natives generally know it. It is not in Afghanistan,
but belongs to the Khan of Khelat, who has lent it or ceded it and the
surrounding country temporarily to us on the understanding that we
pay him as much revenue as he used to get out of it, which we find we
can do, and have a good balance for ourselves without oppressing the
people in any way, which shows that the Khan must have been very much
cheated by his officials formerly. We have established a regular civil
government, and administer the country exactly as if it were India. The
civil authorities of course say the people like our administration, but
I confess I doubt it, as they are a very independent lot, and prefer, I
think, injustice and oppression from their own people than justice and
order after an English pattern. The revenue is paid in a very primitive
manner still in these parts; one-sixth of the whole produce of the land
goes to the Government, and as soon as a field of wheat or an orchard
of peaches is ripe, and the crop collected, Government officials go and
put on one side what they consider the Government share, which is then
sold by auction, the farmer taking away the remaining five-sixths; and
I am told the system works well, and there is very seldom any attempts
to cheat the Government of their dues. There is a club at Quetta, of
which we were made honorary members, and where we lived during our
stay. The club has managed to get up a capital library, and have all
the English and Indian papers and most recent telegrams, so we felt
quite back in civilization again after our wanderings in the deserts
and wilds of the Bolan Pass.


[Sidenote: Visit to hospital at Quetta.]

APRIL 11th & 12th.--The chief civil authority at Quetta is Sir Robert
Sandeman, who has an extremely nice house, very well furnished, and
will eventually have very nice gardens and grounds round it. He asked
me to go and put up with him, but as we had agreed not to break up our
party while at Quetta, but to keep together, I refused his invitation,
but dined with him one night. He is a great supporter of the policy
of pushing forward our frontier into Afghanistan, and interfering in
the internal arrangements of that country, and as I think we have
gone much too far in that direction he and I had a good deal of warm
discussion. I went with him to the hospital to see the 2 native
soldiers who were wounded when Captain Showers was killed, and I heard
from them the whole particulars of the catastrophe. It appears that
poor Showers (whom I have known well for many years) was warned by some
friendly native chiefs not to take the road he did, but he told them
an Englishman never turned back, and he would not do so. He had only
12 or 14 men, all natives, with him, and at a very narrow gorge in
the mountains, through which the road passed, they came upon a party
of some 30 or 40 men posted up among the rocks in a position quite
inaccessible from the road. These men received

[Sidenote: Account of attack on Captain Showers.]

Showers' party with a volley which killed him and a couple of his
men. There was some desultory fighting between the rest of the escort
and the enemy, but the unfortunate escort without their officer and
down in the valley mounted could do nothing, and so the remnant had
to retire, leaving 3 or 4 dead, and the two wounded men I was talking
to, on the ground. The men told me that poor Showers' death must have
been instantaneous, as he was hit by 3 bullets at the same minute, and
never spoke or groaned. Sir Robert Sandeman said to one of the men
who happened to be a sergeant, that he was glad to see he was getting
better, and adding "you see your fate is good" (N.B.--This is a kind of
usual expression when a person has been fortunate, as all Mohammedans
are great believers in "Kismet" or fate), on which the poor fellow,
with tears in his eyes and with wonderful energy and spirit, said, "Ah,
Sahib, don't say that; don't say my fate is good, for I am filled with
shame to think that my Sahib is dead and I am alive. It is a great
shame to me that I am alive; my fate is bad." It was very touching, and
there was no doubt of the man's sincerity and honesty, as we who heard
him could testify to. What he said loses greatly by translation, and
by not being heard, but it was really a most impressive sight. This
wild Beloochie, with his long black hair all about his face, which was
quite pale from pain and loss of blood, getting, in his excitement,
on his elbow as he lay in his bed and speaking with the greatest
earnestness, and then falling back on his pillow quite overcome with
weakness and agitation. The men all liked Showers greatly, as his pluck
and dash appealed to their feelings strongly. This man was the senior
of the party, and he told me he said to Showers that he had better not
go by that route, but that the Sahib only laughed and asked him if he
was afraid. I asked him what he did then, and he said "Oh, the Sahib
was only joking; he knew I was not afraid; but I wanted to save him,
but of course, as he was determined to go on, we said nothing more."
When the rest of the party retired, the enemy came down and stripped
the two wounded men of all their clothes, except their linen shirts and
drawers, and there they lay for 2 nights in the piercing cold. This
man said, "Oh, Sahib, it was so cold and I had such pain, I prayed all
night to God, and said 'let me die,' but God would not let me die, and
here I am. No, my fate is not good!!!" It is a long story, but I tell
it to you to show the sort of fellows many of our native soldiers are,
men that anyone might be proud to serve with. For myself I would go
into action with our native troops without a hesitation (especially men
of certain races), assured of their fighting well and gallantly. This
man of whom I have been telling you was a countryman of the people who
killed Showers, and yet he was perfectly loyal, even to losing his own
life, in the service he had taken. There is no doubt Showers ought not
to have gone the way he did, and in no case ought he to have gone so
weakly escorted. His body was recovered, and he is buried at Quetta,
and punishment has been awarded to the men who attacked him.


TUESDAY, APRIL 13th.--We left Quetta on our first march out to Kandahar
at ¼ to 6 a.m., having, I am sorry to say, left behind at Quetta
Captain Cooke-Collis, who was ordered by a telegram, that was awaiting
him at Quetta, to remain there until the arrival of General Phayre,
whose staff officer he is to be. We were very sorry to lose him, as
he is a pleasant companion, active, energetic, and most obliging. I
was in hopes that he was to be my Brigade Major, which he wished to
be, so the arrangement now made is a disappointment to us both. As the
country between Quetta and Kandahar is more or less disturbed, and the
tribes along the route are not friendly, I thought it well to increase
my escort, so have added to it half a company of Infantry who will
furnish sentries at night and guard the baggage on the road, while the
Cavalry escort will accompany me. With our 5 selves and ½ troop of
Cavalry and ½ company of Infantry, I feel quite safe, and only fear
we won't be given a chance of exchanging compliments with the tribes on
our route. A wing of the 30th N.I. is one march ahead of us, and the
7th Fusiliers escorting £100,000 of treasure leave Quetta to-morrow, so
they will be one march behind us, so we have plenty of troops on the
road.


APRIL 21st.--It is more than a week since I have been able to write up
my journal, as I have, I may say, hardly been out of the saddle since
the 16th, and have slept in my clothes for 4 nights.--April 13th,
continued.--Metarzai, the first march out from Quetta, is a wretched
place, nothing but sand and stones, no rest-house, so we had to pitch
tents for the first time, and found them very hot during the day-time.
The water was far from good.


[Sidenote: March to Dina-Kharez.]

APRIL 14th.--Marched to Dina Kharez, a word which signifies "bitter
waters," and most richly the place has earned its name, as more
disgusting water I never tasted. Our party is a singularly temperate
one, and we all prefer cold tea to any drink, but here it was quite
impossible to drink the tea, as the water is quite salt, and tea made
of it bore a most painful likeness to a black draught, or the senna and
salts of one's youth.--By the way, why is it that the children of the
present day have not to drink the great big tumblers full of senna and
salts which we used to have periodically!--The road between Metarzai
and Dina-Kharez (distance 12 miles) is, as usual, very uninteresting,
except that it crosses what is called the Ghazerbund Pass, a moderately
high range of hills, with an ascent and descent of about 700 to 800
feet. There was a rest-house at Dina-Kharez, but we all (including the
horses) suffered much inconvenience for want of some decent water.


APRIL 15th.--Marched to Segi (10 miles) the country still most
uninteresting and desolate, no inhabitants and no cultivation. The heat
in the day-time is very considerable, and we are all very glad when
evening comes. We always dine outside in the cool, and at Segi we very
nearly lost our dinner, as the soup, which is the great stand by, had
just been placed on one of our rickety camp tables, when 2 great bull
dogs who belong to members of our party, thought fit to commence a most
violent fight under the tables and chairs which were scattered in all
directions. Fortunately we managed to snatch the dishes off first, and
so saved our dinner. I may as well here give the routine of our days,
which are one just like another. We are woke at 4 a.m., dress, pack up
our beds, tents, &c., &c., put them on the carts or camels, placing
materials for breakfast on a pony, as he travels much faster than
camels.--March at 5 a.m., and are generally in at 8 a.m. Shortly after
the pony comes up with some servants, and we have a pic-nic breakfast;
about the time it is done the baggage comes in, and tents are pitched
and boxes opened, and we dress and wash, read, write and talk till 5
o'clock, when we go out for a stroll and visit the horses, &c. Dinner
at 6, and we are all fast asleep at ½ past 8.


[Sidenote: March to Gulistan Kharez.]

FRIDAY, 16th APRIL.--Marched to Gulistan Kharez (10 miles) through
the usual uninteresting desert, but the place itself, which literally
interpreted, means "place of roses," is much better than any place we
have been at yet on this side of Quetta, as there is plenty of good
water (a bright flowing stream), and a few trees. Here there is in
course of completion, what there ought to be at each of the stages, a
small fort and enclosure for the commissariat stores. The fort would be
quite sufficient to resist any attack the Afghans (without artillery)
could bring against it, but to my surprise I found it had no gate or no
means of closing the entrance. The engineer officer in charge of all
the works on the road happened to be at Gulistan, and I sent for him
and told him that I did not at all like the state of things, and that
he must, at any cost, make a gate or other arrangement. The difficulty
was getting wood, of which there is none in this desolate wilderness.
As a makeshift I caused the native officer in command of the post to be
shown how to make a temporary barricade with carts and sand bags, and
so to secure himself against a sudden rush. I dare say at the time I
was thought a desperate nuisance and over particular, but if that was
the idea then the next day's events quite altered their opinions.


[Sidenote: Forced ride on to Chaman.]

SATURDAY, APRIL 17th.--Marched to Killa Abdoola, which is 11½ miles
from Gulistan, and 5 miles from the foot of the Pass across the Khojak
range of mountains which are there 7000 feet high. We got to the end
of our march about half-past 8 o'clock, and about 10 o'clock, as we
had just finished breakfast, the telegraph clerk (there is a telegraph
office here) brought me an urgent message from General Phayre, who was
at Chaman, on the other side of the Khojak range (16 miles off), to
say that disturbances, the extent of which he did not yet know, had
broken out between Chaman and Kandahar, and that all communication with
Kandahar was closed. He asked me to come to him at once. Our baggage
animals having only just completed 11 miles, and the heat being very
great, it was clear the whole party could not go on, so I decided to
ride forward myself, accompanied only by one officer and 5 native
cavalry, leaving all my baggage behind. Major Greig, of the R. A.,
having a fresh horse, I selected to go with me, and we started at 11.30
to ride across the Khojak to Chaman. The Pass is a very narrow and
difficult one, offering many opportunities for organised resistance or
ambushes, but I thought on the whole it was better for me to take quite
a small escort, as if the Pass was held the whole of my escort could
not have forced it, and if there were only a few of the enemy about we
had a better chance to pass through unobserved going a small party.
The proceeding was a little risky, and had it not been successful
would have been disapproved, I dare say; but for myself, I confess I
never expected to meet resistance, as I knew General Phayre's account
of the disturbances were not at all likely to suffer by emanating from
him, as he is a man of extremes, and I thought it quite possible that
things were not as bad as they seemed. The road from Killa Abdoola to
the foot of the Pass is through the bed of a mountain torrent, the
low hills on either side being too far off to afford cover for anyone
trying to hold the Pass. The ascent to the mouth of the Pass is quite
gentle, and then it rises in very steep gradients 2,500 feet. We have
made an excellent zig-zag road up one side and down the other, and the
view from the top is very extensive and curious. About ¼ to 3 I rode
into Chaman, having come across under 3 hours, which was not bad, as
the cavalry soldiers I had with me had already done 11 miles more, and
I had to save their horses in case of necessity either for a charge
or a bolt on the road. I found General Phayre much exercised in mind,
and greatly impressed with the fact that there was a _general_, not a
_local_, hostile movement against us. His information came from Quetta
from Sir R. Sandeman, who is not, I think, as a rule very dependable
in his news. However, of one thing, there was no doubt that there had
been, the night before, an attack in force on a small commissariat
depot about 26 miles from Chaman, and that there an officer and 17 or
18 men (principally commissariat servants) had been killed, and that
another depot, 16 miles from Chaman, had been partially looted, but no
one killed. To this depot, named Gatai, General Phayre had sent on a
wing of a native regiment, and had a troop of native cavalry ready to
go with me if I would go on at once there, and then act as I thought
best, but he recommended my waiting at Gatai until he sent me as
reinforcements 2 guns of a mountain battery, and a couple of hundred of
the 7th Fusiliers. Of course I was all anxiety to get on, so, borrowing
horses from the native cavalry for Major Greig and myself, we started
again an hour after we had reached Chaman, escorted by the troop of
native cavalry. The distance between the 2

[Sidenote: Push on to Gatai.]

places is 17 miles, and the road lies over a stony, sandy plain,
without a village or a living being to be seen. I pushed on as fast
as I could, as I wanted, if possible, to get to Gatai and see all the
necessary arrangements for the defence of the post made before dark.
On arriving, I found that all had been done by the officer in command
which was possible, but the means at his disposal were very limited,
and so had been his time. He had, however, closed up the greater
portion of the entrance with bags of grain, and had raised the walls in
a temporary fashion by laying along them rows of grain bags and making
temporary loop holes. The necessary sentries and picquets were posted,
but the night passed quietly, all of us, however, sleeping in our
clothes. I had no luggage, clothes, or bedding, except the breeches,
and boots, and Norfolk jacket I stood in, but the officers made a
subscription of blankets for me; and one young fellow insisted on my
sleeping on his camp bed, which unwillingly I had to do, he was so
kindly urgent about it.


SUNDAY, APRIL 18th.--Before continuing my story it will be as well to
explain that between the Khojak Pass and Kandahar, the road is divided
into 6 stages, as follows:--

  1st. Chaman,         at foot of the Pass.
  2nd. Gatai,          17 miles from Chaman.
  3rd. Dubbrai,        10 miles from Gatai.
  4th. Mel Kharez,     12 miles from Dubbrai.
  5th. Abdool Rahmon,  12½ miles from Mel Kharez.
  6th. Mandi Hissar,   14 miles from Abdool Rahmon.
  7th. Kandahar,       11 miles from Mandi Hissar.

At each of these places there is a small enclosure, it cannot be called
a fort, in which the commissariat stores are placed. General Stewart
refused to garrison the smaller of these with our troops, but left
them in charge of native levies who the civil authorities assured him
were perfectly trustworthy. The value of this opinion has been very
conclusively shown by the events of the past week. Each enclosure or
fort is like the other, except in size, some being larger than others.
They are of the following shape:--

[Illustration]

General Phayre (leaving me, however, full powers to act as I thought
best) suggested to me that it would be better to wait at Gatai till the
guns and the European troops reached me, but on reflection I came to
the conclusion that to leave Dubbrai unoccupied, and the dead unburied
a moment longer than could be avoided, would have the worst effect,
and that it was quite worth risking something to obviate this, so, as
soon as it was light, I issued orders (I may mention for my soldier
and sailor brothers' information that I have throughout given each
person distinct and plain _written_ orders, so that everyone knew
exactly what to do, and once I issued an order I never changed it)
for reconnoitering parties of cavalry to proceed to Dubbrai and the
hills to our right front, while I pushed on a detachment of native
infantry, with a few cavalry, to re-occupy Dubbrai. I, of course,
left a sufficient force at Gatai to hold it, instructing the officer
in command to strengthen the defences and keep a good look out. I did
not, I confess, expect opposition, and was not therefore surprised
to find, when I followed the main body with a small cavalry escort,
that they had found Dubbrai empty, except of dead bodies, and seen
none of the enemy on the road. We found in and around the Fort 30 dead
bodies and 1 wounded man, who told us he was a Ghazi (fanatic), from
Khelat-i-Ghilzi, and that there were plenty more of them coming. The
men were most anxious to shoot the wretched creature, and I think the
officers generally thought it would have been right to do so, but of
course I forbid anything of the kind, and ordered him medical aid, and
such food and drink as we had at our disposal. I am bound to say he was
not a bit grateful, but regularly spit at us and defied us. He died the
next day, which was quite the best thing he could

[Sidenote: Account of the Dubbrai Attack.]

have done. Among the dead we found and recognized poor Major
Waudby's body, which I buried near the place he fell, reading the
funeral service myself as the best and greatest mark of respect I,
as commanding the force, could give to as gallant a soldier as ever
lived. Poor fellow, he had warning full 8 hours before the attack,
and could easily have evacuated the place, but knowing the country
and natives well, he knew what an evil effect it would have if it was
known a _Sahib_ had shown fear, and so he clearly elected to accept,
one may say, certain death, rather than discredit his name. He had
only 2 sepoys of his own regiment with him, all the rest being helpless
unarmed servants of his own and the commissariat establishment. He must
have fought splendidly, as the enemy themselves acknowledge that they
had 16 killed and 18 wounded, which was very good shooting. Nearly
everyone we saw of the enemy was shot right through the head, so poor
Waudby must have been as cool and collected as if he had been shooting
pheasants. His 2 sepoys died with him, and were found beside him. We
also found his dog sitting by his body refusing to be moved. The poor
dog had 2 terrible sword cuts on his back, but is recovering, and will
be sent home to Mrs. Waudby. While at Dubbrai I received a despatch
from Kandahar, saying that they had sent out troops from there to open
the road up to wherever they met us, and the officer in command sent
me word that no resistance had been offered and I could march on in
the ordinary way. I at once sent back to Chaman and countermanded the
move of the guns, and gave the necessary orders for the improving of
the defences of Dubbrai, and at the same time wrote to Kandahar to
General Primrose, recommending that I should remain a few days in the
neighbourhood with a force of cavalry, artillery and infantry, and that
I should march through all the disaffected districts, as I believed
this course necessary and desirable. I then rode back to Gatai, on my
way going to see about the removal into safety

[Sidenote: Await orders--return to Gatai.]

at that place of a large quantity of Government property which one
of my patrolling parties had discovered in the middle of some hills
about half way between the two places. These things proved to be a
large convoy of Government stores which an Afghan contractor had been
bringing upon camels to Kandahar, when he was attacked by the enemy,
and obliged to drop his load, and give them his camels to carry the
wounded and the loot from Dubbrai. We succeeded in rescuing them and
bringing them into the fort at Gatai, where I was obliged to leave them.


APRIL 19th.--The next morning I was reinforced by some of the 7th
Fusiliers, my own escort with my baggage coming in at the same time.
I had been 48 hours without anything but the clothes I stood in, and
I must say I really felt very little inconvenience from the want of
my luxuries. The ground does not make half a bad bed, especially if
one has been riding in a hot sun for 12 or 14 hours, and as to eating
and drinking there is no sauce like hunger and thirst, and under such
circumstances it is wonderful how extremely nice, things, that really
are very nasty, seem. I have discovered that a saddle is a first-class
pillow, and that with it and a couple of blankets and a fairly soft
piece of ground, a most excellent bed is quite possible. The truth was,
I was really done when evening came, and any place where one could
stretch oneself was delightful. On the afternoon of the 19th I rode
back to Dubbrai to try to telegraph to Kandahar, taking a telegraph
signaller with his instrument with me. The enemy had again (after all
my trouble of the previous day) cut the wire, and we had a lot more
work to do so very unwillingly, as it was getting dark, and I had only
2 native cavalry soldiers with me and no officer, I was obliged to
start back to Gatai without succeeding in sending my telegram. It was
rather a risky ride back in the dark (I did not get back into camp
till near 9 o'clock), but I kept a good look out, and always took care
to be going rather hard in any confined place where the enemy could
have concealed themselves. We saw not a soul, except on one occasion
in an open piece of ground, I thought I made out 4 or 5 fellows about
a quarter of a mile off, who, the very instant they saw I was coming
towards them with my 2 soldiers, bolted, and I thought, under the
circumstances, that I had no business to go skying after them, so
pursued my road quietly without an accident or incident of any kind.


[Sidenote: March to Mel Kharez.]

APRIL 20th.--This morning the wire was restored, and General Primrose
telegraphed to me that it was not thought necessary to keep troops,
as I suggested, at Gatai and thereabouts, and that he wanted me at
Kandahar. I then thought this wrong, and still think so, and the events
of the last few days have amply supported my views. However, I had
nothing to do but to obey, which I did, stating, however, my views
of the position very plainly in my report. The 7th Fusiliers (Head
Quarters) joined me this morning full of indignation because one of
their native servants, who had strayed away from the road, had been
attacked by Afghans and most seriously wounded. They had sent a couple
of cavalry soldiers out, who had evidently seized the first two Afghans
they had met and declared them to be the culprits. There was a great
demand for immediate _justice?_ and I fancy the lives of the 2 poor
wretches would not have been worth much had I not been in camp and
positively prohibited anything but an enquiry, leaving the punishment
of the men to the Civil authorities. I was the more determined on this
point, as the evidence against them seemed to me to be very weak.
I marched for Mel Kharez at 4 o'clock with my usual escort and party,
and stopping to dine at Dubbrai, arrived at the end of our journey (the
distance is 21 miles) about half-past 11. The last 2 hours we had a
bright moon and clear cold air, and the ride was very enjoyable.


[Sidenote: March to Abdool Rahmon.]

WEDNESDAY, 21st APRIL.--Mel Kharez has a Fort like the other places,
and it was also looted, but no English officer being there, the native
Commissariat Establishment had very wisely bolted to safety, and so
no one was killed. I should say that this station was, of course,
more favorably situated than Dubbrai, as it was within 12 miles of
a military post of ours, while Dubbrai was at least 25 miles away
from any help. I forgot to mention an amusing little incident at
Gatai. There also the Commissariat agent, a Parsee, had run away when
the place was attacked. When he returned and came to me to report
his arrival, I said to him in chaff, "oh, you are the gentleman who
ran away!" to which he replied quite as if he was much pleased with
himself, "yes, sir, I ran away, and thereby I have saved my life,"
which was certainly true. At Gatai I had much trouble in getting water,
the neighbouring chiefs having cut off the stream which supplied the
Fort. After exhausting all gentle means to bring them to reason, I
tried the _moral_ force of some cavalry who I sent with orders to bring
the chief man before me. The officer did his work capitally, bringing
back a leading native chief, whose seizure had the best effect, as
the water flowed into our camp sharp enough as soon as they knew I
had their head man in my power. I kept my friend as a kind of a state
prisoner till the next morning, when, with the usual formalities of
Eastern life, I gave him an interview. He was a singularly handsome
fine old man, with (like all true Afghans) a very Jewish type of
countenance and a good manner. He was humble enough, and tried to make
all sorts of excuses, none of which I informed him I thought at all
good, but as the water had been turned on, and he had apologised for
the delay, I dismissed him with a warning for the future. Several of
the other chiefs came in to make their salaam to me, and to promise all
sorts of things for the future. An Afghan is, however, so natural a
liar that no one thinks of believing them, and among themselves they
are never weak enough to put any trust one in the other, and in this
they are quite wise, as a more treacherous lying set of beings do not,
I suppose, exist on the face of the world. We marched from Mel Kharez
at 2 p.m., a beautiful afternoon, to Abdool Rahmon, which is 12½
miles off. The road lay through an undulating valley, on the edges of
which there were some signs of cultivation. Four miles from Mel Kharez
is a range of hills called the Ghlo Kotal, at which we had hoped and
expected the enemy would have made a stand, but they had bolted on
the first sign of our troops approaching. After crossing the Kotal we
descended into the Takt-i-Pul plain, and reached Abdool Rahmon about
6 o'clock. There is the usual Fort at this place, and it is well and
sufficiently garrisoned, and its defences are quite good enough for the
requirements. Abdool Rahmon is 26 miles from Kandahar, so I determined
I would ride in there ahead of my party next morning, leaving them with
the baggage to do the distance in the usual 2 marches. I got the native
chief of the place, a certain Gholām Jan, to lend me a trotting
camel on which to send my bag and bedding into Kandahar, and arranged
to ride Rufus the first stage and a cavalry horse the last one into
Kandahar. An order from Kandahar prohibits officers attempting to go
alone, so I took an escort of a non-commissioned officer and 4 cavalry
soldiers with me, the escort being relieved at the next stage.


THURSDAY, 22nd APRIL.--Left Abdool Rahmon at 6.30 a.m., with an escort
of 5 sowars (native cavalry), and cantered to Mandi Hissar, the next
and last stage on the road to Kandahar. The country is a dead plain,
with some little cultivation, and intersected by watercourses. There
are numerous fortified villages dotted about, from which the passers
by are very often fired upon. At Mandi Hissar I was to change my horse
for a trooper from the cavalry detachment there, and also to relieve
my escort. While the horse and escort were being prepared I had a talk
with the old Soubadar (native captain) commanding the detachment of
the 19th Native infantry quartered there, who, with all his men, were
most anxious to hear all I could tell them about Major Waudby, who was
beloved by all in the regiment. The old Soubadar told me that they all
knew what a _big heart_ (_i.e._, how brave) he had, and he added "if
we can only meet the Afghan scoundrels, we will avenge Waudby Sahib's
death right well;" and so I feel sure they will. To show the feeling
of this regiment I may mention that when the news of Major Waudby's
death was received, a detachment of 150 men were ordered to march at
once to join me. The men were told off in the usual manner, but when
the detachment paraded it was found that 170 were present, 20 men
having fallen in in the hopes that they would not be discovered, and
would succeed in getting to the front. After leaving Mandi Hissar, the
country is the usual stony, dusty desert for 3 or 4 miles, when a low
range of hills are crossed,

[Sidenote: First glimpse of Kandahar.]

and the road descends into the valley in which Kandahar lies, which
was green with corn fields and orchards, and was the pleasantest sight
I had seen since I left Bombay. In the distance the grey mud walls of
the city of Kandahar were visible, but making no imposing appearance,
and differing really in no way from the villages we had passed, except
the extent was greater, and that in many places the line of the walls
was hidden by the orchards which lie all round the city. Unlike most
Mahomedan cities, no domes or minarets of mosques were visible, and I
believe there is in the whole place but one mosque of any importance,
and it would be hardly noticed in any Mahomedan town in India. Passing
round the wall of the city I was conducted by an orderly who had been
sent out to meet me to the charming house in which General Primrose and
his staff live, where I found a very friendly welcome, and a very good
breakfast ready for me. Including a quarter of an hour's halt at Mandi
Hissar, I had accomplished my ride of 25 miles in 3½ hours, which
was sufficiently fast, as I did not want to over-ride my horses. The
house occupied by the General is a regular native building, composed of
small and oddly shaped rooms, very thick walls, and a flat roof. Many
of the rooms are highly ornamented with painting and gilding, and it
is a quaint and cool place to live in, especially as it stands in a
delightful garden full of roses, mulberries, peach, pear, plum trees,
and vines, through which flow narrow canals of water with a rapid
stream, and forms altogether a most delightfully quiet and refreshing
sight after the wretched deserts we had been passing through. In this
garden, but in another house, also lives the chief political officer,
Colonel St. John, and his assistant. The garden has a wall 12 feet high
round it, and the entrances are guarded by English native troops, as
it is, of course, important to avoid any risks to the chief military
officer. Outside the garden lie the very regiments of the force, for
the greater number of whom a certain degree of shelter from the sun
is provided in the shape of mud huts or buildings of Afghan pattern.
Some of the regiments are quartered in regular Afghan villages, out of
which the inhabitants have been turned, but some of the buildings now
occupied by troops are actually those which we built ourselves for our
men when we occupied Kandahar in 1839, and which were found in fairly
good condition when we returned here

[Sidenote: Description of quarters.]

forty years later, in 1879. Quarters of a not very luxurious
description are provided for the officers, that is to say, they are
given a room without doors or windows, and with a mud floor, and any
improvements they wish to make they are required to do themselves.
There is, of course, no furniture, and any luxuries one wants in that
way we have to get for ourselves. The room I have got is at one end of
a long low line of mud huts, the whole of which, except the 4 rooms at
one end, which are allotted to me and my staff, and the four rooms at
the other end which will be given to General Burrows and his staff, are
occupied by artillery officers. My set of quarters are in this shape,

[Illustration]

so I have one room to sleep, sit, and write in, and a room where we
dine and breakfast, and which is, of course, public property. I have,
as a special indulgence, a bath-room all to myself, but no one else
has one. The room when I came into it was horrid; the floor was six
inches deep in dust; there were no doors or windows, and altogether it
was most unpromising. I have, however, had a floor made for it, the
passage and dining-room, of a wonderful kind of stuff like Plaster of
Paris which abounds here, and which hardens in the most wonderful way.
I have had windows put in, and hope to have a door soon; and having
bought a few pieces of a rough native carpeting in the city, and a
couple of tables and chairs, my room begins to look very fair indeed.
The mud walls are appropriately covered with yards of maps, which look
very business-like, and in the small recesses I have had a few wooden
shelves put up which quite do to hold my very scanty wardrobe. I find
my room very hot and close at night, so I have pitched my little tent
outside my door and sleep in it, watched over by a sentry whose sole
duty is to guard his sleeping General, who can, therefore, slumber in
the most perfect security. It would be rather monotonous to live with
my Brigade Major and orderly officer only, as I am afraid we should
get very tired of each other during the hot weather, so I am trying
to get up a sort of mess between General Burrows and me, taking in
our staff, and a couple of outsiders who have no special place to go
to--viz., our Chaplain, Mr. Cane, and the Judge Advocate, Colonel
Beville. The latter has agreed to manage the affair, so I have nothing
to do with housekeeping, which is a blessing, and as Colonel Beville
quite understands management and likes good things, I hope the affair
will be a success, and that General Burrows will agree to join. The
parson begged me to take him in, and I did not like to refuse, though
I cannot say I care much about him (though perhaps he will improve
on acquaintance), as he has the reputation of being rather inclined
to quarrel and be difficult to manage. We will hope he is maligned
and will prove not to have so unclerical a failing. A mess on service
is a very rough affair, as we have no plate, crockery or linen, and
live what is called camp fashion, that is, all the mess provides is
tables and food, and each person's servant brings his plates, knives,
forks, and spoons, and chairs, and when dinner or breakfast is over
removes them. We shall, I daresay, in time get a few luxuries such as
chairs, dishes, and perhaps a few table-cloths (I have 2 of my own for
great occasions), and we have already made our dining-room look fairly
comfortable (I am writing on 4th May), by putting down some carpets,
and I have no doubt between Colonel Beville and me that we will get rid
of as much unnecessary

[Sidenote: Annoyances from flies and sand-flies.]

roughness as we can. The great drawback of the whole place is the
flies, which are most exasperating and pertinaceous. I am preparing a
complete set of fortifications against them for my own room, by having
net (which I have been fortunate to get in the city), such as musquito
curtains are made of, nailed over the windows, and a door covered with
net for the one entrance, so that I hope in time to be fairly free from
them. They retire for the night, I am glad to say, about 7 o'clock,
but as soon as they leave the sand-flies begin, and I think they are
almost as bad, as they buzz and bite just like musquitos. They are a
kind of very small gnat, and their bite is most irritating to some
people, but they don't hurt me. The regiments are necessarily scattered
over a large extent of ground, and the work is consequently very
heavy on the men, as we have to post sentries very closely together
to prevent the Afghans coming within our lines. The great proportion
of the force is outside the city where I am living, but we hold the
citadel, which is inside the city, where also we keep our arsenal
and commissariat stores. A native infantry regiment and a detachment
of a British infantry regiment hold the citadel, and the quarters
occupied by both the officers and men there are much preferable to
ours in the cantonments, as they are all regular native houses, many
of which have gardens, and all some trees near and about them, and in
this desert land a bit of green or a little shade have a value which
no one who has not seen the country can understand. There is nothing
striking about the actual city of Kandahar to anyone who has visited
or seen an ordinary Indian town of the 5th or 6th rank. There are the
usual bazaars with the occupants of the shops at work at their various
trades in the front of their shops, and in many shops coarse English
earthenware and cheap Birmingham and Manchester goods are exposed for
sale, as is the case in even small villages in India. Raisins of all
sorts and description, from the little sultanas up to dark purple ones,
are sold in quantities, and seem to be a regular portion of the food
of the poorest people. So far I have seen nothing curious or unusual
which I would be tempted to buy, but then we cannot here wander about
and go into the shops and ransack them for curiosities, as the people
have a nasty trick of watching till a person is busy looking at things
in a shop, and then coming up quietly and stabbing one in the back. It
is consequently necessary, when we go shopping, to go in parties of
2 or 3, or take an escort, so as to always have some one on the watch
against treachery, and as long as one takes this precaution they are
too cowardly to attack in the open. The people in the streets are very
picturesque, and most of them fine handsome men. No women are ever seen
except very old ones, and even they generally wear the Turkish yashmak
or veil which covers

[Sidenote: Kandaharis--the Charsoo.]

them from head to foot. In the centre of the city the 4 main streets
meet under a curious large-domed building, around which are shops, and
which is always crowded with a very mixed gathering of villains of all
sorts. This place is called the _Charsoo_ (or four waters), and it was
in it that Lieutenant Willis, of the artillery, was murdered in broad
day light by a Ghazi (N.B.--Next week I will explain who and what
Ghazis are), who, however, was himself immediately killed. Any native
attempting the life of any officer or soldier is now always hung in the
Charsoo, which has had a very good effect.


THURSDAY, 22nd APRIL, continued.--The newspapers have had a good deal
of late about Ghazis, both here and at Cabul, and I dare say it will
be well to explain who and what they are, as even here people have an
idea that every Afghan who fights against us is a Ghazi, and there is
some reason for this idea, as the primary meaning of the Persian word
is "a warrior." The Ghazis, however, with whom we have had to deal, are
fanatical Mahomedans who bind themselves by vows to kill one or more
of the infidels (that is of us), and thereby earn a positive certainty
of going straight to heaven. So convinced are they that if they can
only kill an infidel their future happiness is secured, that they are
perfectly indifferent as to whether they lose their own life in the
attempt or not, in fact I believe they rather desire to be killed,
and so enter at once on all the delights of a Mahomedan Paradise,
the principal charm of which is, that they are there to have as many
wives as ever they like, all, we will hope, warranted free from vice
or temper, and requiring no management, but living as a happy family,
without any jealousy or inclination to scratch out each others' eyes,
as I fear would be the case in a similar establishment on earth. It
will be easily understood that a gentleman with these ideas in his head
is a very awkward customer, as, caring absolutely nothing as to what
happens to himself, he has a very great pull over the man he attacks,
who is extremely unwilling to be either wounded or killed.

[Sidenote: Murderous assaults by Ghazis.]

Moreover, although the Ghazis are undoubtedly brave to fool-hardiness,
they don't at all disdain stratagem or treachery, and much prefer to
stab their first victim quietly in the back, as the more men they
kill before they are themselves killed, by so much the more is their
position in Paradise improved. They, however (that is the real Ghazis),
never use fire-arms, only swords or long Afghan knives, and always
try for a personal hand-to-hand encounter. There have been many
cases of attacks by Ghazis here, and though in every case the Ghazi
was immediately himself killed, nothing seemed to stop the practice.
There has, however, been no attempt of the kind for a month, but of
course none of the necessary precautions are relaxed. The last case
was that of a lad, who was a sworn Ghazi, attacking an officer with no
other weapon than a shoemaker's awl, with which, however, he inflicted
a couple of disagreeable wounds in the back before he was seen and
seized. On Christmas day 5 men walked out of the city, and came into
the barracks of the 59th, and (in open day) produced long knives from
under their clothes, called out that they were Ghazis, and had come to
kill anyone they could get at. Of course they were shot down, but so
wild was the shooting that 4 of the men of the regiment were killed
by the bullets from their comrades' rifles! The incident, however,
shows what plucky fellows they are, as of course when they entered the
barracks of the 59th, and openly declared their purpose, they must
have known their lives were forfeited. In consequence of the number
of Ghazis here, and the generally hostile feelings of the people to
us, we are all required to go armed at all times, even when riding out
or walking for exercise. It is a great worry, and I hate it, being
a little sceptical as to the necessity for the extreme measure of
precaution required, and am disposed to think a neat little bludgeon of
a walking stick I possess would prove a much more serviceable defence
to me than my regulation sword. Everyone carries loaded revolvers,
especially when in the city, and I dare say the fact that we all do so
being known, prevents many attempted attacks being made. The soldiers
have to carry their rifles, and when they go into the town have to fix
their bayonets, and altogether we live in a regular state of siege,
which I would myself like to see ended by the application of some good
strong remedies, and immediate and severe punishment for murderous
attacks. Still, even then I fear we could not hope to change the nature
of an Afghan, who is born a treacherous, lying, murdering scoundrel.
Strong words, I know, but nothing more than they deserve, as even their
admirers can say nothing in favor of their moral qualities.


FRIDAY, 23rd APRIL.--Being, for the present, the next senior officer to
General Primrose, I exercise the command of all the troops at Kandahar,
and all local arrangements and details are in my hands, as General
Primrose commands the whole force, the senior officer at each place
having the local command. When General Burrows arrives the command
here devolves, by virtue of his seniority, on him, and I fall back on
my brigade command, which I hold now in conjunction with the large
command. The troops here form a nice little force, and consist of--

  3 Batteries of artillery.
  2 Native cavalry regiments.
  2 British infantry regiments.
  3 Native infantry regiments.
    And sappers and miners.

And though the command entails plenty of work and responsibility, I
like it, and wish I could keep it while I am here. The first thing,
of course, was to ascertain the positions held by various regiments,
their weak points, &c., and so I spent the afternoon in riding round
and making myself acquainted with everything as far as I could, so
that in case of a row at night, I should be ready to decide on what
might be necessary to do. I moved into my quarters in the cantonments,
and obtained permission for Capt. Law, of the artillery, to act as
my Brigade-Major, as the officer who is to hold the appointment
permanently has not yet arrived. Capt. Law is a smart good officer, and
I am very glad to have him as my staff officer.


[Sidenote: Force ordered into the Arghesan valley.]

SATURDAY, 24th APRIL.--This afternoon I was greatly delighted to
receive orders to hold in readiness a small force to proceed into the
Arghesan valley, to disperse a considerable gathering of the enemy who
were reported to be there. I was to go in command, so I had a double
interest in the matter, and lost no time in seeing that everything was
prepared, and that we should be fully supplied with all the necessary
appliances for entrenching, road and bridge making, blowing up the
enemy's forts, &c. We were not to start till Monday, and then only if
the enemy did not agree to disperse and submit to the Governor of
Kandahar, which they had been called on to do. I am sorry to say that
hearing of our preparations they gave in at once, and eventually my
little expedition was countermanded, which was a great disappointment
to everyone. During the evening we had a little excitement, as an
Afghan tried to steal and run away with the rifle of one of the native
soldiers, which he had put down on the ground for a minute. The soldier
gave the alarm, and 4 men of the nearest guard turned out and, after an
exciting chase of about 3 miles, they came up within 400 yards of the
thief, who immediately fired at them, but they returned his fire with
good effect, and killed him at the 2nd shot, recovering the rifle and
the remainder of the ammunition.


SUNDAY, 25th APRIL.--We had (as we have each Sunday) service for the
troops in the open. The men are formed up on 3 sides of a square, and
a pile of drums on the fourth side acts as reading desk and pulpit. Of
course the men come with their rifles, and everyone is fully armed,
ready for business at a moment's notice. There is a room in one of the
barracks where evening service is held, but it is too small for the
whole of the men in the morning, and there is also a temporary church
in the citadel, where there is service morning and evening performed by
a missionary.


[Sidenote: Inspected quarters of various regiments.]

APRIL 26th to 30th.--I was engaged morning and afternoon visiting
all the regiments, camps and hospitals, and making myself thoroughly
acquainted with the various positions, and carrying out such changes
and alterations as seemed to me necessary, first, for the safety of the
place, and next for the comfort of the men. I also managed to take a
few gallops out along the main roads which lead to Herat and Ghuzni,
so as to have some idea of the country, in case of necessity. I hope
shortly to know every inch of the country for 10 or 15 miles round, but
this will take a little time. I am required by General Primrose never
to move about with less than 2 native cavalry soldiers, and of course
if I go more than 4 or 5 miles from camp I would take 4. Sometimes I
take my Brigade-Major or Orderly Officer, or both, but I like best
wandering about alone, as then I feel more independent (that is without
any other officer). Frequently, however, parties of 6 or 7 officers are
got up, and we have a scamper across country, earnestly hoping we may
meet some one who would like to try conclusions with us.


SATURDAY, MAY 1.--Received letters from home, dated 1st April, a most
welcome arrival and a great pleasure. People who get letters every day
in the week cannot understand what the pleasure of getting letters is
when you can only hear once a week, and then only provided the Afghans
have been behaving themselves along the road.


SUNDAY, MAY 2.--I had just settled myself down to a quiet day after
service and breakfast when a report was brought to me that there had
been a row in the city between the Afghans and some soldiers of the
Artillery, and that 2 soldiers had been shot and one wounded. There was
a good deal of excitement, as every one at once made up their minds
that it was the beginning of an organized attack. The accounts which
I succeeded in getting out of the soldiers who had rushed up out of
the city were most conflicting, excepting in one remarkable point on
which all agreed, and that was that only _one_ shot had been heard,
although it was acknowledged that one of our men fired off his carbine
down the street. This was curious, and made me doubtful about the whole
affair, so I sent the Brigade-Major off to the city at once to discover
the facts for me, and went over to General Primrose, who sent the
Political Officer also into the city to make enquiries, and eventually
we ascertained, almost without a doubt, that the men had been killed
by the accidental discharge of a carbine by one of their comrades who
had been fiddling with his loaded carbine, which had gone off, and the
bullet passing through 2 men killed them instantaneously. Since then
the man has confessed and explained the whole matter, and there is now
no doubt that there was no shot fired by the Afghans at all. The affair
caused some excitement, and might have led to very serious results.


[Sidenote: Inspections--Ride into Argandab River valley.]

MAY 3rd, 4th, & 5th.--More inspections and visits to the troops morning
and evening which fully occupied my time.


MAY 6.--A party of officers, among whom was William French, accompanied
me to visit the valley of the Argandab River, which lies N.E. and N.W.,
and about 4 miles from Kandahar. To get to this valley a range of hills
rising to 4,500 feet (that is 1,000 feet higher than our camp) has
to be crossed, there being only 2 practicable passes, and these very
rough, steep, and bad. The change from the dusty stone plain round
Kandahar to the valley, which lies on the other side of these hills, is
extraordinary, as nothing can be more wretched than the one and nothing
more charming than the other. The whole valley is a series of fields
of the most magnificent crops of wheat and barley, meadows full of
clover, and orchards of every imaginable description of fruit. (To be
continued).


MAY 6th.--It would not be possible to give an idea of the luxuriance
of the crops and the extraordinary abundance and variety of the fruits
in the Argandab valley. Every field has rows of mulberry trees round,
which were covered with fruit, of which the passers by (we among them)
eat apparently as much as they like without payment. The other fruits
were not ripe, but the apricots were just beginning to get soft, as
were the plums, especially one very like the greengage in appearance
and taste. Besides these there were vines everywhere, climbing over
the walls and up the mulberry and other trees, all covered with a
magnificent promise of grapes. There were also in abundance--peaches,
nectarines, figs, pears, apples, quinces, and pomegranates, the latter
being only in flower, but in that way adding greatly to the general
appearance of the orchards, as they bear a very dark red flower which
is most effective among the dark green of their leaves. Each field
or orchard has a rapidly flowing stream of clear cool water running
through it, which is the cause of the extreme luxuriance of everything,
and very grateful to us who have been so long in a very "dry and
thirsty land." (The remarkable fitness of these Bible descriptions are
very clearly seen in these eastern lands). After halting in a mulberry
grove resting our horses and having a good feed of mulberries, we
struck out across country to get home, and had a delicious ride along
the banks of a big canal shaded with trees, and felt very sorry when we
emerged once again into the dust and glare of Kandahar. The apricots
are now (May 12th) just being brought into the market, and we buy them
(paying, no doubt, an extravagant price) for 1½d. for 2lbs.!! The
difficulty is to avoid eating too many. Peaches, plums, and figs, will
follow, and we shall, I believe, have grapes in June. The people are
now cutting their corn which is rapidly ripening, which we are sorry
for, as we shall miss the beautiful green they now are, and have only
fields of yellow stubble. The primitive reaping hook, almost exactly
similar to that used at home, is in use here, and the Afghan spade is
almost similar to our shovel in shape, with the exception that on the
_handle_ of the shovel a cross piece of wood is fixed as a foot piece
for the digger. I am told, but this I can hardly believe, that from
the same root of wheat, barley, and oats (that is from one sowing),
they get in this country 2 distinct crops, and certainly they appear
systematically to cut down the first crop when it is green, but after
it has eared, and in a few weeks afterwards a second crop is in ear
without any fresh sowing.


[Sidenote: Visit to old city of Kandahar.]

MAY 7th.--Rode out to visit the old city of Kandahar, which has been in
ruins since 1737 when it was besieged by the Persian King, Nadir Shah,
and after a long siege taken and destroyed. It is a curious sight to
see it now, as the walls of the city and many of the fortifications,
which must have been for those days very strong, still remain in
wonderful preservation, as do the walls of the houses covering a
considerable extent of ground, but not a living soul is to be seen, and
the whole place is a picture of desolation and loneliness. After Nadir
Shah had destroyed this city, he caused another one, also fortified, to
be built about four miles off, but this also has been deserted, and is
even more ruined than the older city. The present city of Kandahar is
the third which has been built within the last 150 years.


MAY 8th.--I made an excursion to one of the Passes over the hills near
this, but the distance was longer than I had calculated on, and as it
was getting dark I had to turn home without accomplishing my object.


[Sidenote: Officers fired at by Afghans near Kokeran.]

MAY 9th.--I started for a ride at half-past 5 p.m., accompanied by
my usual escort of 2 native cavalry soldiers, and proposed to myself
to ride to a place called Kokeran, about 7 miles off. When I got out
about two miles on the road I saw that there were threatenings of a
dust-storm from that direction, and, not caring to ride for pleasure
into a cloud of dust, I turned off to the left and took a canter for
3 or 4 miles through the fields, coming out eventually on the Kokeran
road, about 4 miles from our camp. The weather had cleared then,
and I thought I might still have time to explore a little way along
this road, but on looking at my watch I found it was 7 o'clock, and
that (as there is no twilight here) it would be quite dark before I
could get home, so I turned round and cantered back to camp. Just as
I got close to the camp of the 19th Native Infantry, I saw a party
of officers and 2 cavalry soldiers going along very slowly in front
of me, and on riding up to them and enquiring what was the matter, I
found that they, while returning along the Kokeran road from a ride,
had been fired on by a party of Afghans concealed behind a wall, and
that one officer (Captain Garrett) and one Sowar were badly wounded.
Captain Garrett was nearly fainting and falling off his horse, as he
had to ride about 5 miles after being wounded, so I got him off on to
the ground, and supported him till a doctor and a litter to carry him
in was brought, and at the same time sent off one of the officers to
report the occurrence to General Primrose. The attack had taken place
about a mile nearer to Kokeran than the spot at which I had come out
on the road, so, had I been half an hour or even less earlier arriving
there, I should certainly have gone down the road, and had a chance
of a scrimmage on my own account, and had I carried out my original
intention I should have got to the spot where the ambuscade was before
the other party, or possibly just about the same time, which would
have been more convenient altogether. My first inclination when I
heard the account was to gallop back to the place with my own 2 Sowars
and the one unwounded man of the party which had been attacked, but
on reflection for an instant I felt this would not be correct, first,
because I was bound to take General Primrose's orders, next because
the chances were, that long before I could get back the 5 miles the
attacking party would have run away, and lastly that it would certainly
be considered not the place of a General to be scampering with 3 men
over the country, like a cavalry subaltern, and so I galloped off to
General Primrose in the hopes he would give me the cavalry Brigade and
let me go off to scour the whole country. At first he was very well
inclined to do this, but eventually less forward councils prevailed
and a hundred _good?_ reasons were discovered for doing nothing till
morning. On further enquiring from the officers who were fired at, we
found that they had been out to Kokeran, and were riding quietly back,
the three officers abreast and the 2 Sowars behind, when suddenly a
volley was fired at them, and thinking there was a large body of men
concealed, they galloped off. As it turned out there were only 10 or
12 men, and after seeing the ground as I did next morning, I had no
difficulty in coming to the conclusion that they might, with good
effect, have halted some 2 or 300 yards off, and returned the fire with
good success.


MAY 10.--I went out very early with some cavalry and the Political
Officer, and scoured the country round, but of course found no traces
of the party who had fired on the officers, and all the surrounding
villages absolutely denied any complicity in the affair, so we had
to return to camp, having been unable to accomplish anything. In the
afternoon I went out again with an escort of cavalry, and accompanied
by 5 or 6 officers, and we went to Kokeran and hunted the hills all
round, but saw no one. No doubt we threw away our only chance in
deferring till to-day what ought to have been done yesterday.


[Sidenote: Installation of Shere Ali Khan as Wāli.]

MAY 11th.--I attended a great durbar (or court) at the palace of the
Governor, in the city, at which the letter appointing Shere Ali Khan,
Governor of the Province of Kandahar, on behalf of the Queen, was to
be read. Although it was very like what all such affairs in India are,
it was quite worth seeing, and I should have enjoyed it very much if I
had not been obliged to eat and drink so many nasty things as Persian
etiquette on such occasions absolutely requires one to swallow. The
proceedings commenced with small cups of tea, without milk or cream,
being handed round, then there were speeches and the presentation of
the Viceroy's letter, and of the presents sent by the Queen, and the
affair wound up by trays of Afghan sweet-meats and iced sherbet being
brought in, of which all, even the soldiers on the guard of honor, were
required to partake. Iced sherbet sounds nice, but when it is flavoured
with musk, it is apt (at least as far as I am concerned) to act very
like an emetic. The sweet-meats I dare say I should have appreciated
better about 30 or 40 years ago, and my Orderly Officer certainly
seemed to find them very much to his taste. I send a capital account of
the whole affair which appeared in the _Kandahar News_, and which can
be read by those curious in such matters at this point....


On the 13th of MAY the new Governor, or as he is called here, the
Wāli, which is the Persian word for _Governor_ of a province,
announced his intention of coming to pay a return visit of ceremony
to General Primrose, and as Government wished us to show him all
possible honor we had the whole garrison out (about 5,000 men) and
lined the streets of the town and the roads between his palace and
General Primrose's house. The troops turned out wonderfully well and
smartly, and we hear the Governor and his people were much impressed
by their appearance. After seeing all right along the line of the
procession I returned to General Primrose's house, where all the staff
were collected to assist General Primrose in receiving his guest. The
Wāli (or Governor) arrived about ¼ to 6 o'clock, accompanied by a
very ragged looking lot of followers. He sat between General Primrose
and me, and we had to carry on the usual uninteresting exchange of
compliments through an interpreter, as none of us could speak Persian,
and none of the Afghans could speak Hindustani. After a short time tea
was handed round, and to our relief the visit, which was necessarily a
very stupid affair, ended. According to Eastern etiquette, the Governor
ought to have brought return presents with him, and each of us who were
there should have had some present, but our Government do not allow
us to accept anything of value, so nothing was offered. Since then,
however, the Governor has sent us each, as a memento of the occasion,
one of the new gold coins which he has struck for general issue. It is
rather a pretty coin, of quite pure gold, and will do very well as an
ornament for a watch chain.


[Sidenote: Ride to an old gold mine--now deserted.]

MAY 14th to 19th.--Nothing of any interest occurred, except that I
daily take long rides and increase my knowledge of the country, nearly
every yard of which, for 10 or 12 miles round, I have now ridden
over. To the north and east of Kandahar there are very pleasant rides
indeed, through green fields and shady lanes, along watercourses, but
on the other two sides it is all sandy and stony deserts, with high
rocky hills, which only a sense of duty has induced me to visit at
all. Among other places I have been to is a gold mine which has been
worked for centuries, and is situated about 5 miles from Kandahar. It
is now, however, deserted, as the upper earth fell in two or three
years ago, and has choked up the place where they say the vein of gold
was. The new Governor of Kandahar is most anxious to re-open the works,
but despite the wonderful stories of the richness of the mine which
the natives tell, he has not been able to get much encouragement out
of our professional Geologist, who, after a careful examination, has
come to the conclusion that the mine will never again pay its working
expenses. The morning I rode over to see the place I found the Wāli
(governor) down in the bottom of the mine, with half a dozen natives,
carefully examining the place and collecting specimens, &c. He had
evidently come out to have a quiet look at his new property, and did
not seem particularly pleased at being caught, although he was very
friendly and civil, of course. In my wanderings through the country
I never fail to investigate the quality of the fruit, and have made
a discovery, in two places, of a very superior kind of mulberry, of
which there appears to be only half a dozen trees in the whole valley.
They are so different from the common kinds that the natives call them
Shah-toot, which means, the King mulberry, and the trees they grow on
are considered quite curiosities. It certainly is a very delicious
fruit, and I have only revealed my discoveries to a chosen few. I am
a much earlier riser than most of my friends, and therefore seldom or
never have any companion in my morning rides, except the two native
cavalry soldiers who are my escort. I generally start when I have no
parades or inspections, about half-past five in the morning, when
the air is deliciously cool, and seldom get home till 9 o'clock, by
which time the sun is very hot. The country is intersected with water
channels for irrigation purposes, and mud walls divide the fields of
corn and wheat, so there is lots of jumping, and some of the obstacles
are very awkward. The orchards and vineyards are surrounded with very
high walls, but there is also lots of fruit of all kinds growing along
the paths which anyone may eat. In this country, from one end of it to
another, there is no such thing as what we would call a road, as there
being not a single wheeled vehicle in the whole length and breadth
of the land, roads are not at all necessary. Everything is carried on
camels, ponies, bullocks and donkeys, a regular stream of which flow
into Kandahar every morning, loaded with fruit, grain and grass. The
people here must be making fortunes, and certainly ought to like us,
as we pay anything they ask for everything, and the prices, though not
very exorbitant, are at least double what

[Sidenote: Dust-storms of almost daily occurrence.]

they used to be. It is getting very hot now in the day-time, and we
have constant dust-storms, which are, of all things, the most horrid
and the greatest trial to one's temper. Imagine the delights of an
immense cloud of dust a mile square, or more, driven along by a red
hot wind, and forcing its way into every hole and corner. While it
is passing it is quite dark, even in mid-day, and when it is gone
everything one possesses, every table, chair and book is covered with
an inch of dust, and one's hair and beard turned into a whitey brown
color, and stiff with dirt. Here we sometimes have a dust-storm which
is continuous for an hour, but generally they come up in regular
succession, each lasting 3 or 4 minutes, and a shorter or longer
interval between each. Towards 8 o'clock in the evening the wind goes
down and it becomes quite cool, and we generally have our dinner table
placed outside our quarters, and so brilliant has the moon been, that
for the last four days we have dined quite comfortably by the light
of it without any candles or lamps at all. Our mess now consists of
General Burrows and his Brigade-Major, Captain Heath; General Brooke,
his Brigade-Major, Captain Leckie, and his Orderly Officer, Lieut.
Fox; Colonel Beville, Deputy Judge Advocate, who manages the mess for
us, Captain Harris, the Deputy Assistant Quarter Master General, and
Mr. Cane, the Chaplain. The mess is managed on what is called the
"camp fashion" principles--that is, every one has to provide their own
plates, cups, knives, forks, and spoons, and chair; then wine, beer,
and tea at breakfast are supplied by each person for himself, according
to his own taste, the mess merely providing the eatables. It is a very
good plan, as then no large supplies of crockery, glass, stores, or
wine are necessary, and each one is able at a moment's notice to go off
on a march, with all his things complete, without interfering with the
comfort of the remainder of the party.


[Sidenote: Cases of Ghaziism--Ghazis killed.]

MAY 20th.--A Ghazi attempted to kill a soldier of the 66th Foot to-day,
but only succeeded in wounding him, and was himself instantly killed by
the soldiers who happened to be near, who bayonetted him promptly. It
seems that the man who was wounded was walking with a comrade down one
of the streets of Kandahar, looking at the things in the shops, when
an Afghan armed with a bayonet rushed out of a side street, shouted
out he was a Ghazi, and made straight at the two men, and succeeded in
inflicting two wounds (not serious) on the man nearest to him before
his comrade fully realized what was happening, when he immediately
bayonetted the Ghazi. When I first arrived here the men used to go
into the city with loose ammunition, and often, I make no doubt, with
loaded rifles, and when attacked by Ghazis used to fire wildly and, as
a rule, missed the Ghazi, and killed unoffending passers by. I took the
loose ammunition from them (leaving them, of course, ammunition in the
usual bundles in their pouches), and told them in such cases to use
their bayonets first, and then, if pressed, they might open ammunition
and use it. The change was not altogether liked, but this affair
(the first in which a Ghazi has had prompt justice meted to him) has
satisfactorily proved the propriety of the arrangement.


MAY 21st to 25th.--Nothing new has occurred. We had lots of
dust-storms, but, alas, there is nothing new about them, as they come
with a painful degree of regularity every afternoon.


MAY 26th.--There was another attempt by a Ghazi to day to earn
martyrdom, but this time it was one of the Hindustani camp followers
who was attacked. He, however, had a sort of sickle in his hand, with
which he was cutting some grass, and when attacked by the Ghazi, who
had a sword, he returned the compliment so smartly that the capture of
the Ghazi by a couple of native soldiers who came up at the moment was
very easy. He was brought in a prisoner, and when his case was being
investigated, and he was asked for his defence, he said simply "that he
was a Ghazi, that he had sold his cow to buy a sword, and he was very
sorry he had not killed the infidel." He was handed over to the Provost
Marshal for immediate execution, and he accepted his fate with the most
perfect coolness and indifference.


MAY 26th, 27th, and 28th.--Nothing of interest occurred.


[Sidenote: Feu de joie--"Akhbar" admired.]

MAY 29th.--We had a great parade for the Queen's birthday, all the
troops at Kandahar being on the ground, making a very effective show,
as we had

  Three Batteries of Artillery,
  Three Regiments of Cavalry,
  Five Regiments of Infantry,

and the line was of good extent. General Primrose commanded the
parade, and General Burrows and I had each our own Brigades. One of
the performances on the Queen's birthday parade is firing a _feu de
joie_ with blank ammunition, when the fire is run down the whole of
the front rank, and then back up the rear rank, and this is done three
times, and is, as may be imagined, most trying to horses, especially
those who have to stand with their backs to the line as those of the
Generals and Staff have to do on this occasion. Prudence suggested to
me to ride my old and tried charger Rufus, but vanity got the better
of prudence, and being anxious to show off Akhbar, and also to make the
best turn-out on my own account that I could, I made up my mind to ride
the Arab, who is really a picture when got up for parade. He is young
and inexperienced, and had never been on parade before, or never heard
a shot fired, but Arabs very often don't mind anything of that kind,
and I hoped for the best and thought it all right when he stood like a
post while the Artillery were firing their salute. The _feu de joie_,
and the consternation it produced among all the other horses, was too
much for his nerves, and he gave me all I knew to sit on him, though
I don't blame him a bit, as this particular kind of firing is most
trying to all horses. On this occasion not one of them really stood it
steadily, and General Burrows' horse was so objectionable as to succeed
in throwing him, although he is a first-rate rider. I was, however,
quite repaid for the little bother I had by the admiration Mr. Akhbar's
appearance called forth as he went past the saluting flag at the head
of the Brigade.


MAY 30th and 31st.--Nothing new.


JUNE 1st and 2nd.--Do. do.


JUNE 3rd.--I had been for some time meditating an exploring trip up a
valley which had not been previously visited, and about which I wanted
to know something, but had put it off from day to day on account of
the heat, as the distance made it necessary to be out all the forenoon.
Tired, however, of the monotony of the previous week, I determined to
carry out my intention and have an outing and a good ride. I made up a
party, but at the last moment all, except Captain Law and Captain Slade
of the Artillery, both of whom are enterprising fellows, and always
ready for anything, cried off on one excuse or other, the real truth,
however, being that they were too lazy and did not like the idea of a
35-mile ride. At the last moment a young subaltern of the Artillery
asked me to let him go also, so we started a party of 4 officers
and my 2 Native Cavalry soldiers. We took a feed for our horses and
materials for a pic-nic breakfast with us, as we intended to halt for
a couple of hours or so about 8 o'clock. We left our quarters at 4
a.m., and it was really quite chilly when we started, and continued so
till ¼ past 6 o'clock, when the sun got up and quickly made himself
felt. Our road lay through a narrow valley, with high hills on either
side, and very stony rough going it was, as, in accordance with the
customs of this country, there was nothing that one could call a road
or even a pathway, and consequently we had to go slowly except when
now and then we got out on a bit of grassy ground where we could have
a canter. We saw a good number of deer who seemed much astonished
to see a white face, and moved away from us very leisurely, making
us wish we had brought a gun or rifle with us. We thought of trying
our pistols on them, but did not care to throw away our ammunition
unnecessarily. We also saw, though at some little distance from us,
the finest eagle I have ever seen. Indeed I have never seen such an
enormous bird anywhere. Our destination was a fortified village called
Mansurabad, which is about 15 miles in a straight line from Kandahar,
but the turnings of the road added at least a couple of miles to that.
We hit it off all right, and went all through it, the people seeming
civil enough, but very anxious for us to move on. The most of the
inhabitants were out in their fields cutting a most magnificent crop of
barley, wheat, and oats, and they were evidently a well-to-do lot, as
there were great flocks of cattle and sheep grazing all round, and the
orchards were stocked with fruit

[Sidenote: Into the Argandab river valley.]

of all kinds. At this village we came on the Argandab River, from
which the water, which turns the country along its banks and round
Kandahar into a garden, is brought by a wonderful system of canals
which carry it in all directions. These canals leave the river just
below Mansurabad, and the way they are planned and engineered show
great cleverness on the part of the people who made them many hundred
years ago. Leaving Mansurabad behind, we struck down the valley of
the Argandab, and set to work to find a good place for our halt for
breakfast. This was not quite so easy to do, as we wanted such a lot
of things. First and foremost, remembering the Prince Imperial's fate
(though I don't _think_ we had a Captain Carey in our party), we wanted
a place which could not be approached suddenly by the wiley Afghan,
and a place that if attacked we could have defended ourselves in.
Then we wanted shade for ourselves and horses, and water at hand for
the horses and for drinking and cooking. Eventually we got rather a
good spot though we had to sacrifice shade somewhat to the other more
material points. Having set our horses to work at their corn, we turned
out the contents of our wallets (my campaigning saddle carries 2 side
bags and a pair of holster wallets) and found we had the makings of
a capital breakfast. My contribution was first and most important, a
small kettle to boil water in, a tin of chocolate and milk, 2 tins of
potted beef and ham, a loaf of bread, 6 hard-boiled eggs, salt, pepper,
&c. Among the others there were more eggs and more bread, a Bologna
sausage, and a heap of sandwiches. We soon collected some sticks and
had a fire burning (I had brought matches and some old newspapers),
and quickly had hot water ready and chocolate made, and made an
excellent breakfast, finished off by a heap of apricots brought to us
by a friendly Afghan. His idea of our powers of disposing of apricots
was magnificent, as, after we and our two soldiers had eaten all we
possibly could (and we did our best), we fed our horses on them, and
still left a good pile behind us. In this part of the world apricots
are in millions, and our friend brought us a _few for breakfast_ in a
sack thrown over his shoulder. The reason why apricots are cultivated
up here is that there is great demand for them in India in a dried
state, and tons of them are dried in the sun and sent down to India,
and can be purchased in the smallest and most remote village in that
country, and you (the children) used to eat them stewed very often when
you were in India, and, if I don't mistake, liked them very much. They
are often called in India _Alubokaras_, which, however, is not their
proper name. We lounged about for a couple of hours, and then continued
our ride down the Argandab Valley, and for ten miles rode along a
charming rapidly flowing stream of clear water, well

[Sidenote: Various fruits of Kandahar.]

shaded on both sides by trees covered with apricots, plums, and
mulberries, a most enjoyable ride, as, though the sun was hot, there
was a very cool breeze, and the trees kept the great power of the sun
from us. We saw many vineyards with a great promise of grapes, but none
are ripe yet, and also lots of figs, apples, pears and pomegranates,
all, however, some weeks from being eatable. The people we met, though
not actually glad to see us, were not uncivil, and many of them offered
us fruit as we rode along. No doubt our being well armed helped to make
them civil. We got home at ¼ past 1 o'clock, having been 9¼ hours
away, and having had a most enjoyable excursion. The distance was, I
think, between 33 and 35 miles, and my old friend Rufus carried me like
a bird, although with my saddle bags, big saddle and all, I am afraid
I made up a good 15 stone for him to carry.


JUNE 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.--Nothing important occurred on the 4th, but
on each of the next three days there were attempts by Ghazis to kill
some of our people. In the two first cases the men attacked were
native servants, in the third case it was a soldier of the 66th.
Both the natives were seriously wounded, but the soldier having some
suspicions was on his guard, and escaped with a slight scratch, and
bayonetted his assailant. The last idea the Ghazis have taken up, which
is rather a mean one, is to send quite young boys to make the attack,
as naturally people neither notice the approach of, nor try to avoid
a small boy, and besides men hesitate to deal out summary justice,
even in self defence, on a child. One boy who tried to stab one of
our native servants is really quite a child, but as savage untamed a
little viper as I ever saw. It is very hard to know how to deal with
the young rascal, but I think a good whipping in a public place every
other day for a month would be the best punishment. The first well
authenticated account of a Ghazi that I know of will be found in the
3rd chapter of Judges, verses 14-22, as the motives and actions there
described are exactly those of the Ghazis of to-day. However, this last
device of sending children to do the work of men is so mean, that any
little respect one might have for the motives which make men Ghazis is
entirely destroyed.


[Sidenote: Serious loss of warm clothing.]

JUNE 8th.--Shortly after I left Bombay I found I should want some
clothes I had left packed up, ready to follow, so I telegraphed to
Alfred Christopher, and asked him to send my portmanteau to me, and
I took all sorts of precautions by writing to the various transport
officers along the road, and asking them to expedite its movements. It
left Bombay on the 8th April, and exactly 2 months later it made its
appearance here, so it had travelled very leisurely, and worse still,
had been cut open and nearly everything in it abstracted. All the
things I most wanted were stolen, and nothing was left except my Ulster
and a few pair of old drawers. When the weather gets cold I shall be
very glad to have the Ulster, of course, but the loss of a first-class
pair of corduroy breeches and all my warm clothing is very tiresome.
This misfortune, and the destruction of my things in the Bolan River
leaves me rather short of clothes, and I shall not find it easy to keep
up a very respectable appearance much longer.


JUNE 9th, 10th, 11th.--Nothing new. The heat is very much greater the
last few days, and even the nights now begin to be hot.


JUNE 11th to 18th.--Nothing of any interest occurred, except that day
by day the weather became hotter, and we lost our cool nights which
had, up to this time, quite compensated for the heat of the days. A
careful record of the heat during the month of June showed that the
thermometer on one occasion rose in the shade to 124°, but that the
average maximum for the month was 114°, and the average minimum 65°.
Although the heat has, no doubt, been very great, it has not equalled
in oppressiveness and debilitating effect the heat one gets at Cawnpore
and Allahabad, and stations in the Punjab. Daily the grapes and fruit
have been getting riper, and we have had a sort of compensation for
the heat in the variety and goodness of the fruit. A great number of
officers have been ailing more or less, the result, I am sure, of the
sedentary lazy lives they lead. Great heat is, of course, enervating,
and it takes some determination after a long hot night to start off for
a good ride, and it is even worse in the evening. I am glad to say I
have steadily stuck to my exercise, and have frequently, in the morning
before breakfast, done 20 to 25 miles, and then 8 or 10 in the evening.
Whatever has been the cause, I have certainly been wonderfully well,
and, beyond the inconveniences of the heat, have not felt the slightest
bad effects. I have now visited every inch of country within 12 to 15
miles of Kandahar, and know every part of it thoroughly.


[Sidenote: March to Kelat-i-Ghilzi countermanded.]

JUNE 19th.--It was decided to send the 30th Native Infantry to
Kelat-i-Ghilzi to relieve the 29th N. I., and both regiments being in
my Brigade, General Primrose allowed me to march up to Kelat-i-Ghilzi
with one regiment and come back with the other, going up the Argandab
Valley and returning by the valley of the Tarnak. As very little was
known of the Argandab route, I was very glad to have the opportunity
of seeing it and also visiting Kelat-i-Ghilzi. Captain Leckie, my
Brigade Major, was to accompany me, and Major Leach, of the Engineers,
on surveying duty, and Mr. Gordon, a Missionary who is here, also
asked to join my party. The first there was no difficulty about, but
the advisability of the latter going was more doubtful. However, as he
wanted to make the trip only with the view to holding services, &c.,
for the English troops at Kelat-i-Ghilzi, he was allowed to come, and
we all made our preparations for a start on the 25th, but between the
20th and that date the heat increased so greatly that it was considered
unwise for us to move until a change in the weather set in, and so, to
my great disgust, our trip was postponed.


25th, 26th, 27th, 28th.--Heat very great.


29th.--We got further, and apparently more certain information that
Ayoub Khan with his army was actually on the march from Herat towards
Kandahar, and preparations were at once put in hands to equip a force
for despatch to Girishk to prevent his entrance into the Province of
Kandahar. The distance from Herat to Girishk is 280 miles, and the road
is, like all roads in this country, extremely bad, and very little
water to be found along it once the Valley of the Helmund is left.
About half way between Herat and Girishk is the town of Farrah, and
to this place it was said Ayoub Khan's advance guard had arrived. The
Wāli of Kandahar was at Girishk, with part of his forces across
the Helmund in Zamindawur, and on hearing of Ayoub Khan's movements
he wrote and asked us to come to his help. Reference, of course, had
to be made to the Viceroy and Commander-in-Chief at Simla, and in the
meantime our preparations for a move went on. The force to go out was
a Brigade of Cavalry under General Nuttall, and a Brigade of Infantry
under General Burrows, who, being senior, would command the force.
A Battery of Horse Artillery was also ordered to be in readiness.
Generals Burrows and Nuttall being senior to me, it was natural and
right that they should have the commands, and indeed in any case, of
course, the Cavalry General must have gone with his own Brigade, but,
all the same, I cannot help being envious of their luck, though I shall
have most responsible and interesting work here, as on me devolves the
command of the Kandahar garrison, and the task of guarding, with a
force reduced much below what is desirable, the whole position here.
I shall only have for this purpose 2 of the Infantry regiments of my
Brigade, one of which is weak, having detachments at the posts on the
Quetta road, 2 Batteries of Artillery, and about 300 Cavalry. We expect
two more Infantry regiments up in about a fortnight, but till then we
are certainly much below our proper strength.


[Sidenote: Force ordered from Kandahar to the Helmund.]

JUNE 30th.--The very worst dust-storm I have yet been in occurred
to-day, as it blew from 12 o'clock till 3 a.m. on the 1st July, when
the wind changed, and a most perceptible difference in the temperature
occurred. Nothing could be more disagreeable than these 15 hours
were, but the change in the heat quite repaid us for the previous
discomforts. Orders were received from Simla to send the proposed force
to Girishk at once, so the Cavalry Brigade will march on the 4th, and
the remainder of the force on the 5th, a junction being effected on
arrival, near Girishk. Girishk is about 90 miles from Kandahar, and
the road is, for the most part, through dry uncultivated country, and
there would not have been sufficient water at all the halting places
for the combined Cavalry and Infantry Brigades. Girishk is on the
River Helmund, and General Burrows has positive orders not to cross
that River, and I can hardly suppose it possible that Ayoub Khan will
venture to force the passage of the River against our vastly superior
(in arms and discipline) force. In numbers, of course, he has, it is
said, about ten times a larger force than we have, but that is not of
much consequence. Putting aside as unlikely his making an attempt to
cross the Helmund at Girishk, three courses are open to him. The first,
and it is thought by the Political people the most probable, is, that
on arriving near Girishk he will endeavour to come to terms with us,
and put in his claim for the Amir-ship, and say he does not want to
fight. The next is, that instead of making for Girishk, he might cross
the Helmund, at, or near, a place you will see on the map called _Kala
Bust_, and giving General Burrows the slip, come down the Argandab
to Kandahar. This, though the most unlikely, is what I should like.
The third course is to pass along to the north of Girishk and cross
the Helmund near _Garm-ab_ (hot water), and bearing away northwards,
pass along the Valley of the Tirin River, and eventually strike the
Ghuzni road beyond Kelat-i-Ghilzi, and so get to Kabul without coming
into collision with us at all. If Ayoub Khan does not want either to
fight or make terms, or does not fall back on Herat, on finding us in
force at Girishk, this last course seems a very likely one for him to
take. These being the various alternatives, we ought, according to my
idea, to have a small force in the Argandab Valley, near the junction
of that River with the Helmund, and we should have a strong Brigade
in the Tirin Valley, but both these moves are impossible, as we have
no men, and it will take all we have to hold our own here. Of course,
all is, at present, conjecture, and it might even be, so defective is
our information, that Ayoub Khan is still at Herat, or, on the other
hand, that he may reach Girishk before we do, and cross the river, and
either fraternize with, or fight and lick the Wāli, and the outcome
of the whole affair will be known at home long before this is received.
Whatever happens, the move of the two forces I have mentioned (if
men were available) would, I am clear, be the right thing to do, as
precautions, at any rate. As the variety of names that are mentioned in
connection with the Government of this country are very puzzling, it is
well to mention

[Sidenote: Mahomedan law of succession.]

that Abdul Rahman, who stands first for the throne, according to the
Mahomedan law of succession, is a first cousin of the deposed Amir;
that Ayoub Khan is the late Amir Yakoob Khan's full brother, and that
he comes 2nd, and that the third is the little boy, Musa Jan, who is
Jakoob Khan's son. If Abdul Rahman has refused our offers, Ayoub Khan
has a good chance, the Political officers seem to think, and so he may
be coming down here in a friendly manner. However, time will soon show
now. This is, I fear, a very dry bit of geography and history, but the
first part will be clear enough if read with the map, as then you will
see what the moves on the board might be, and, according to my idea,
should be.


JULY 3rd.--Took over command of the Kandahar garrison, and spent the
morning in trying, with as much regard to safety as possible, to
reduce the guards all over the position, but doing my best the men
will be very hardly worked for the present, as will be understood when
it is remembered that our Infantry are reduced by a whole Brigade of
2,000 men. In addition to the two Native Infantry regiments which
will possibly be here within the next fortnight, we hear that the
Viceroy has ordered up another complete Brigade from the Reserve, but
it cannot be here for at least 6 weeks. I cannot myself think this
addition necessary, as once we get the 4th and 28th Native Infantry
from Quetta, we ought to be fit for anything.


JULY 4th.--The Cavalry Brigade, with the Battery of Horse Artillery and
company of Sappers, marched before daybreak, and starting about an hour
after them, and taking a line across country on the excellent Akhbar,
who carried me like a bird, I arrived at the first camping ground
before the Brigade got in. It was a most lovely morning, as we have
suddenly gone into quite cool weather, indeed it was quite cold when I
started, and the ride was very enjoyable. This change in the weather
is extremely pleasant, but of course no one expects it to last, and
no doubt before the end of the week we shall have it as hot as ever.
Still, every cool day is a gain. This sudden change in the aspect of
affairs here is remarkable, as ten days ago the idea all over India
was, that we should all be on our way back to India in a couple of
months, and, instead of that, we are being heavily reinforced, and this
would hardly be done if an early retirement was intended. Still so many
foolish things have been, and are continually being done, in connection
with our campaigns in Afghanistan, that the present moves may mean
nothing important after all.


[Sidenote: Cavalry & infantry brigades left Kandahar.]

JULY 5th.--The Infantry Brigade under General Burrows marched this
morning, halting for the day at Kokaran. They did not get off quite
so easily and well as the Cavalry Brigade, as they were hampered by
having with them a large quantity of extra ammunition for both rifles
and horse artillery guns, and as in this country there is no such thing
as a road, and wheeled vehicles of any kind are impossible, everything
has to be carried on pack animals, and the trouble and worry of loading
and starting has to be seen to be understood. Here we use five animals
for carrying packs--viz., camels, mules, ponies, bullocks, and donkeys,
and I should be afraid to say the numbers of each which has accompanied
this column. For the extra ammunition alone there were 250 ponies and
bullocks, and as in that number there were a certain proportion of
bad tempered brutes who at first refused to carry anything at all,
delay was inevitable. However, the great comfort in marching is that
the first march is always the most tiresome, as each day the men and
animals fall more easily into the routine, and in a short time the
machine works quite easily. I went out with the Brigade to their first
halting ground, and having seen them all settled down, rode back to
Kandahar, and spent the most of the day in perfecting my arrangements,
as far as the means and force at my disposal would permit, for the
safety and protection of our painfully straggling and badly laid out
position at Kandahar. Certainly General Stewart has not left behind
him any marks of a long-seeing and provident General. On the contrary,
he seems to have trusted to good fortune, and fortune seems to have
stuck to him in a remarkable manner. I consider the position here,
from a military point of view, bad in all respects, and that even all
the advantage which might have been taken of it has not been availed
of. I have urged my view of the case, and can do more. As far as one
can judge from the appearance of things, and the reports we get, it is
extremely unlikely we should ever be attacked here, but I don't think
that is any reason why we should not take every precaution. At the same
time I must confess that the weakness of the position has one great
advantage, and that is, we should operate in the open, a much better
place for our soldiers than behind walls. I only wish the enemy would
be so badly advised as to attack us, as, with all disadvantages, I have
no doubt of the results.


[Sidenote: Rode out to General Burrows' brigade.]

JULY 6th.--I was up at 4 a.m. and out at ½ past 4, and set off across
country to catch up the Brigade and ride a few miles with them, and
then come home. They, however, had started at 4 o'clock also, and so I
did not come up with them till they were 12 miles from Kandahar, which
was not to be wondered at, as they had 6 miles start of me, and got
off half an hour earlier than I did. I could not, therefore (as I had
to be back for breakfast and work), go very much further with them,
so, after seeing them on their way a mile or so further, I struck off
through new country and went straight for Camp, which I reached at
nine o'clock. I rode Rufus, who did his 27 miles in first-class style,
and could have done half as many more without any trouble. The morning
was cool, almost cold, and a good deal of the country very pretty. The
climate just now, and the excellent forage we get, suits the horses
very well, and they are all, both public and private, in first-class
order.


JULY 7th.--Nothing of interest, except that we had news from
Kelat-i-Ghilzi that they had a small skirmish there on the 1st July.
The news made me more than ever disappointed that I did not get off to
visit that place as was originally intended, as I should then have been
in for this affair.


JULY 8th.--Rode a long way up the Argandab Valley this morning in hopes
of picking up some information, or ascertaining if there were any signs
of movement or excitement. Everything seemed very quiet, and the people
in the numerous villages I rode through were very busy thrashing their
corn. An absurd accident happened to me as I was riding home, which at
one time threatened, though quite free from any danger to myself, to
effect the destruction of my one pair of long riding boots, which would
have been an irreparable disaster. I had to ford a small water channel
about 6 or 7 yards wide, the water of which was muddy, but looked
quite shallow, so I rode in very carelessly, but had not gone 2 yards
when Mr. Akhbar went right down over his saddle, plunging violently. He
managed to get his chest on the bank, and I lost no time in springing
on to hard ground and hauling him, with some difficulty, out of the
hole, nothing the worse, I am glad to say. It appears that the people
had dug a well about 10 feet deep in the bed of the water-course, and
it was into this we had got. Of course I was wet through, and so was
the saddle, but the sun was warm, and I was an hour and a half from
home, and long before I arrived there everything was dry. I had to take
my poor boots off most gingerly, and have been nursing them greatly,
and I think they are nothing the worse. I was much more anxious about
them than anything else, as nothing of the kind is to be got here,
and parcels take 2 and 3 months coming up from Bombay. I am beginning
to get rather short of clothes, as it was a great loss having all the
contents of my portmanteau, which were principally strong warm clothes,
looted on the way up here. The orchards of peaches and nectarines in
the Argandab Valley are just now quite beautiful to look at. The trees
are loaded with most splendid looking fruit, which, however, are rather
disappointing when picked, as they don't seem to ripen thoroughly.


JULY 9th.--We had an unofficial rumour that the advance guard of the
Wāli's army had been met at Washir by the Cavalry of Ayoub Khan's
army and defeated, but as no confirmation of the rumour has come
from General Burrows, we are not inclined to credit it, though it is
received as quite true by the people in the city, who are only too glad
to believe anything to the detriment of the Wāli. Of course we must
expect all sorts of rumours now, and I am, for curiosity, writing them
all down as we get them to see how many eventually prove true, and how
many are incorrect.


[Sidenote: Chief of Kokaran deserted the Wāli.]

JULY 10th.--To-day it was reported that considerable disaffection
exists among the Wāli's Chiefs and Officers, and that the most
important man of the lot, the Chief of Kokaran, a place about 6 miles
from this, has deserted, and this--July 11th--was so far confirmed that
we received official news that he had, with 80 followers, withdrawn
himself from the Wāli's force, although it does not appear, so far,
that he has joined Ayoub Khan. In accordance with Afghan customs, the
Wāli's representatives here at once took reprisals by seizing the
son of the Chief of Kokaran (a small boy in a bad state of health) and
putting him in prison, and taking possession of the house and property
of the deserter at Kokaran.


JULY 12th.--Employed during the morning in endeavouring to make
arrangements for making the Citadel safer and more in accordance
with the rules of war, but the task is hopeless, as the place is
radically bad in a military point of view, and surrounded with houses
on 3 sides. Strictly speaking these houses should have been knocked
down for at least 300 yards all round the wall of the Citadel, but
General Stewart appears to have set his face against any military
precautions, insisting that they were quite unnecessary, "as the people
were friendly to us." The consequence is that the whole position here
is, strictly speaking, untenable--that is, if an enemy with either
organization or means were to come against it. As, however, there is no
possibility of any scientific attack being made on us, we feel that,
bad as the position is, we can quite engage to hold it, and lick the
enemy outside into the bargain. The City of Kandahar is a parallelogram
about 1¼ miles long, and ¾ of a mile wide, something like this--

 [Illustration:

 The Citadel    +-------|----|-------+      is close to the
                |                    |
 north          |    +---+---+--+    |      end, and
                |    |          |    |
 the outer     ---   |  Citadel |   ---     wall of
                |    |          |    |
 the City      ---   +---+---+--+   ---     forms then a
                |                    |
 sort of        |                    |      double wall
                |                    |
 to the        ---                  ---     Citadel.
                |                    |
               ---                  ---
                |                    |
                |                    |
                +-------|----|-------+
 ]

There are 6 gates in the wall of the City, which is fully 20 to 30
feet high, and very thick and strong. At each of the city gates there
is a guard of Native Infantry, and we hold the keys of the gates which
we lock every night at sunset, after which hour neither entrance nor
exit is permitted to anyone. The guards are stationed on the ramparts,
and their posts should, from the first, according to the most ordinary
rules of war, have been put in a state of defence, but nothing was done
to them, and General Primrose has been unwilling to make a change in
the matter. Now, however, he has allowed me to take measures to make
them safe in the event of any outbreak.


[Sidenote: Rumoured advance of Ayoub Khan.]

JULY 13.--A welcome addition to our force reached us to-day, in the
shape of the Head Qrs. Wing of the 4th N.I., which marched in from
Quetta. The remainder of the regiment will follow shortly. There was a
report that Ayoub Khan, with his army, had actually left Furrah, and
that his advance guard was at Washir, but there is no confirmation of
the collision between his and the Wāli's forces there, which has
probably never occurred. There is much excitement in the city, and the
merchants, jewellers, &c., are hiding and burying their property, which
means, I assume, that they don't believe in our power to defend the
city against Ayoub Khan. A gathering of the enemy is reported as being
at Karkrez, about 30 miles off, and there is much excitement among the
tribes in the Arghastan Valley. There is no doubt it is very desirable
that our force at Girishk should have an opportunity of administering
a lesson to some one, or we shall probably have to do something in that
way ourselves here.


JULY 14th.--Information received that one of the Wāli's regiments,
composed of men from Kabul, is mutinous. They are in the fort of
Girishk with the Wāli. Ayoub Khan is said to have with him 1,800
cavalry and 4,000 infantry, and 30 guns. So General Burrows' force of
2,500 men and 6 guns have not much to fear. I visited all the guards on
the city gates in the evening, and walked round the whole city on the
ramparts, and had a good view of the inhabitants preparing to go to bed
on the roofs of their houses, which are flat, and always used as the
sleeping apartments of the family. The ramparts are 20 to 25 feet high,
and as the houses are all one-storied, the roofs were much below us,
and we saw more of Afghan domestic life than usual, as the people did
not anticipate that anyone would be passing round then, and the roofs
were covered with ladies, who, however, very quickly let down their
veils when they saw us in the distance.


[Sidenote: Guns recovered from mutinous troops.]

JULY 15.--News from General Burrows received this morning states, that
the whole of the Wāli's army was mutinous, and that the situation
was so critical that he had decided it was necessary he should
disregard the positive orders he had received not to cross the Helmund,
and that he proposed to do so, and disarm the mutineers. I should
explain that our force is, under orders from the Viceroy, halted on the
Kandahar side of the Helmund, while the Wāli and his army are in the
fort of Girishk, which is on the Herat side of the Helmund. Later in
the day news arrived from the Wāli (which was apparently authentic),
that early the previous morning (14th) the whole of his army left
him, taking with them the Battery of guns our Government had been so
idiotic as to give the Wāli. The letter, which was from the Wāli
to his son, who is here, went on to say, that immediately General
Burrows heard this, he had crossed the river with his cavalry and Horse
artillery, and pursued the mutineers, and coming up with them had
killed 200 and recovered the guns. This report seems authentic, though
probably exaggerated, but as yet no confirmation has been received from
General Burrows. True or not, the report has had a good effect in the
city, and will help to show that the people are not likely to improve
matters by trying conclusions with us. I had a deputation from the
Parsee shopkeepers, who have followed the army from India, and have
shops in our camp, where they sell us wine and provisions, &c., at most
exorbitant rates, to beg me to give them a place in the fort for their
stores, as they were in a dreadful fright for their lives and their
property. Even if I had considered they were in danger, I would not
have acceded to their request, as I would much prefer their running
certain risks, to giving public confidence the shock of supposing I
thought it necessary for our camp followers to take refuge in the fort,
so I laughed at their fears, refused their petition, and comforted
them by saying, that even if they now lost the whole contents of their
shops, they would still be great gainers, as they have made their
fortunes already by swindling us. They did not seem to see this in the
light I did, but had to accept the inevitable, and take their share of
the risks. As there is a large number of evilly-disposed men in the
city, it was decided that it was desirable to show

[Sidenote: 40-pounder guns moved into fort.]

them we were determined to put down any disturbances with a strong
hand, so we moved down two of our 40 pounder guns into the fort,
and placed them in position to shell the city, and at the same time
established a system of strong patrols, which night and day visit the
city, and go through all the main streets. There is no denying these
patrols would be in an unpleasant position if attacked, as street
fighting is, of all, the most disagreeable, but I have given clear
and distinct orders for the guidance of the officers in command, from
which they learn what they are expected to do, and which will cover
their responsibility in resorting, if necessary, to strong measures.
The great objection one feels to returning a fire in a street is, that
in such cases it is always unfortunate children and women who suffer,
and not the men who deserve it, and who take precious good care to
remain under cover. I visited the city myself, and found all quiet, and
went with the Wāli's chief man to arrange for certain improvement
to the fortifications, and was quite civilly received everywhere. It
was satisfactory to find that already the arrival of the guns in the
fort was known and appreciated, and one Afghan said to me, "They" (the
guns) "are very big: two discharges from them and the city would be
destroyed." I answered in the language of the country, "I believe you,
my boy."


JULY 16th.--Rode out to Kokeran, and on arrival there, met a well armed
caravan, the people composing which could give but an unsatisfactory
account of themselves, so one of our native cavalry patrols coming up
at the moment, I made the lot prisoners, and sent them into the city
to be examined. They may only be peaceful traders armed for their own
defence, as they were perfectly civil, but even in that case some
information will be got out of them. No news yet from General Burrows,
who possibly has gone on in hopes of meeting Ayoub Khan. We have
decided to disarm every Afghan approaching Kandahar, and I have issued
the necessary orders to ensure this being done.


JULY 16th.--Rode out to Kokeran in the morning, returning by the
Argandab, all seemed quiet. Visited the city in the evening, and found
all quiet there also.


JULY 17th.--Was woke at 2·30 a.m. by the Brigade-Major bringing the
officer commanding the cavalry patrol (which is on duty round the camp
all night), who reported that a considerable fire was burning in the
direction of Kokeran. As these fires very often indicate a collection
of men bent on mischief, I desired him to proceed cautiously with
his patrol in the direction of the fire, and ascertain its cause,
and bring me information, and at the same time I ordered a troop of
cavalry to follow in support. The fire proved to be caused by some
evilly-disposed persons having set a light to the corn and straw stacks
of a peaceably-disposed native, living some 8 or 9 miles from camp, and
the patrol found no signs of a gathering of men, so returned to camp.
Confirmation was received from General Burrows of his successful fight
at Girishk against our _supposed_ friends, the troops of the Wāli,
in which he had succeeded in recovering the Battery of artillery which
our Government had given as a present to the Wāli, and the first
time it was used was to fire upon us! General Burrows also recovered
a great deal of stores and baggage belonging to the Wāli, and much
ammunition, and on the whole made a very successful business, losing
but very few men himself, the loss of the enemy being computed by
themselves at 400, but was probably not more than half that number.
There being a want of supplies at Girishk, General

[Sidenote: Retrograde movement on Kushki-Nakud.]

Burrows thought it right to fall back to a place 25 miles nearer to
Kandahar, called Kushki-Nakud. There were many good reasons, I confess,
for this move, but personally I would never willingly, in Eastern
warfare, take a retrograde step, except under the strongest compulsion,
as Afghans know nothing, and care less, about the laws of strategy,
and see only defeat in any but forward movements. The fact is, had we
known that the Wāli's army intended to mutiny, we would never have
advanced beyond Kushki-Nakud, as there are many good objections to
the position at Girishk. That we did not know the shaky state of the
Wāli's troops is all the fault of the Political officer with the
Wāli, who, wishing to see all things _couleur de rose_, persuaded
himself that all was right, and could not, or would not, believe any
evil of them. Even he must now see what we have felt sure of all along,
that Shere Ali is quite without power or influence, and quite unable
to maintain his own authority for a day without our assistance. We
have, of course, here, the reflex of the events at Girishk, as there
has been a very marked increase of excitement and turbulence in the
city, since the news of the mutiny of the Wāli's troops has arrived,
and had not, at the same time, the intelligence of the licking they
had received from us reached the city, we should certainly have had an
outbreak there.


JULY 18th.--Moved another 40 pounder gun into the fort, and mounted it
on a very commanding position, from which we could soon destroy the
best part of the city. Of course there is no intention of a measure
of this kind, but a big gun ready for action has a very _soothing_
effect on the warlike feelings of Afghans, or Easterns generally.
Intelligence was brought in, that attacks on the posts of Mandi Hissar
and Abdul Rahmon were likely, and though it was not thought there was
much chance of these places, which are now very fairly strong, being
attacked, it was thought wise to send some cavalry to reconnoitre,
which was done; but the officer, on arrival at Abdul Rahmon (25
miles off), was able to telegraph that all was quiet and no sign of
gatherings or excitement. If, however, the existing state of feeling in
the country grows or becomes intensified, it is quite possible these
posts may be attacked, but if so they should be well able to hold their
own.


[Sidenote: Cavalry patrol fired upon--officer wounded.]

JULY 19th.--Was suddenly woke at 2 a.m. by the sound of a volley
of musketry close to our quarters, followed by the noise of horses
galloping. I at once recognised what had happened--indeed it was the
only thing which could have happened--that the cavalry patrol had been
fired on by some of the enemy. I lost no time in getting to the best
place for a view, and presently one of the patrol rode up and reported
that as they had been passing along, about 200 yards from our quarters,
a volley had been fired into them from behind a low wall, and that
several men and horses had been hit. I immediately sent off orders
for 2 companies of the 7th Fusiliers and a troop of cavalry to turn
out, and getting dressed as quickly as possible, was mounted and ready
before the troops could come. We then carefully swept the whole ground
round the camp, but of course failed to find the attackers, although
we certainly were on their track ten minutes after they had fired. The
country round our camp lends itself in the most unsatisfactory manner
to small attacks of this kind, as on all sides there are enormous
cemeteries, with thousands of graves and vaults, into any of which a
few men could get and hide with absolute safety. The night was dark,
the moon having set, and a haze come up, as it generally does here
towards morning. On investigation I found that the native officer
commanding the patrol was badly wounded in the arm, and that 2 horses
were slightly wounded, and one soldier and one horse were killed.
While I and the Brigade-Major, and the Cavalry Colonel, were standing
together, near the man who was killed, an intelligent? native sentry
who was posted about 400 yards off, took it into his wise head to
decide that we were a party of the enemy, and putting a bullet into his
rifle, took a deliberate and, I must say, extremely good shot at us,
aiming, I am glad to say, just a few feet too high. I had not heard the
whiz of a rifle bullet since the China days, but I had no difficulty
in recognizing it again, and as soon as weightier matters allowed, I
had my friend, the sentry, made a prisoner of, and properly punished
the next morning. All things considered, we have had very little wild
firing by sentries here, but, as is always the case, there have been
some few instances which I have not failed to punish without accepting
any excuses. This little affair of the patrol is another excellent
instance of how little Sir Donald Stewart did to make the position here
as good in a military sense as it could be--as had he done so, he would
not have left a wall or enclosure standing within a thousand yards of
our camp anywhere. He, however, would have none of them touched, first
because he wanted to conciliate the people; and next, because he wanted
to save the expense of pulling them down. When General Primrose came
he accepted the existing state of affairs, and would allow nothing
to be done, although General Burrows and I naturally have wished to
have things more ship-shape. I lost no time in pointing a moral, and
adorning a tale after the affair of the patrol, and got permission to
take down all walls and enclosures in the _immediate_ vicinity of the
Barracks, of which permission I have availed myself to the full, and
a little over, and made a very perceptible improvement, though I am
by no means contented yet. I asked General Primrose to insist on the
Wāli's people levelling various big enclosures between our position
and the city walls, but as they surround very holy shrines and mosques,
they begged for a respite on promise of good behaviour, and I am
sorry to say it has been granted. However, what has been done is most
useful, and makes the work of the patrols easier and safer. It was very
unfortunate that the native officer commanding the patrol should have
been shot in the right arm, and his horse wounded, as he was unable to
pull up the horse for some distance, and so did not succeed in seeing
where the men who attacked him went to.


[Sidenote: Daily visits into city--all quiet.]

JULY 20th.--Paid my usual visit to the city, and found all very quiet,
and the people by no means uncivil. In the evening I took all the
cavalry officers, English and native, round the camp, and gave them my
ideas of the way in which they should patrol, and what a patrol should
do when fired on (_i.e._, _not_ run away).


JULY 21.--Having arranged with Major Adam, the Assistant
Quartermaster-General, to make a reconnaisance through the villages in
the Argandab, we started from camp at half-past 4 o'clock (a lovely
fresh morning), and, crossing the Baba-i-Wali Pass, rode for several
miles up the Valley as far as a village called Sardeh Bala.--(N.B.--You
will find all these places on the big map I sent you last mail, which
will give you a capital idea of the events I have now to tell of).
Turning back from there we proposed to return into the Kandahar plain
by the pass across the range of hills (which separates the plain from
the Argandab Valley) which is called the Kotal-i-Murcha. This range
of hills, which is very clearly marked on the big map, rises to a
considerable height, being often as much as 2,000 to 2,500 feet above
the plain. The two passes through the range are the Baba-i-Wali and the
Kotal-i-Murcha. The first is passable by men and horses, and we have
made a road for guns over it. The second is a mere mountain track, up
which not more than one man can go abreast, and part of which is so
strewn with detached rocks that it is absolutely necessary to dismount
and lead a horse along it. This pass, however, is a short cut from
the city into the Argandab, and we have all used it regularly when
riding out there. I myself rode that way on the 16th, and there was,
therefore, nothing rash or unwise in our returning that way. From the
commencement of the ascent to the top of the pass is about ½ a mile,
and the rise in that distance is 700 to 800 feet, and therefore very
steep. We had just commenced the ascent when one of our escort drew our
attention to some men dodging behind the rocks over our head, who had
guns, and were evidently trying to avoid being seen. An armed man is
so usual a sight in this country that I did not for the moment think
anything of the matter, and indeed prevented Major Adam, who said
he would like to take a shot at the nearest man from doing so. As a
precaution, however, I ordered 3 of the escort to dismount and get out
their carbines, and Major Adam took a carbine, and so did I, and we
slowly ascended, keeping our eye on our friends, or rather on the place
they had been, for we could not see them then. Presently (all this
occurred in less time than I write it) we saw one scoundrel pop his
head up from behind a stone and take aim. We were too

[Sidenote: Fired upon in Kotal-i-Murcha pass.]

quick for him, for Major Adam and one of the escort let fly at him,
and so threw out his aim, that he fired high, and no one was touched.
Immediately, however, 3 more shots were fired, one killing one of the
horses of the escort, our fire in return being quite harmless, as our
assailants were behind rocks, and we were out in the open. Still it
served to unsteady their aim, and we got to the top and under cover
without further damage, though most of the shots had been fairly well
directed for us. I had one shot as I came up, which, I am sorry to say,
was not successful, though I made my friend "leave that," as Paddy Roe
used to say when I fired at a hare and, according to my custom, missed
it. As soon as I got the party under cover I sent men down on each
side of the hill (having first sent off to Kandahar, 4½ miles off,
for 20 infantry to help in the hunt through the rocks) to prevent the
enemy getting down and running away, and Major Adam and I, each with
2 men and a pocketful of ammunition, essayed climbing the hill. He
first descended a good bit and hit off a fairish path which took him
a long way up, and during the ascent he had 4 or 5 shots, but never
could get near the fellows at all, they being all mountaineers, and
we being burdened with heavy riding boots, spurs, &c., and knowing
nothing of the paths. I, with my two men, made excellent progress at
first, but found ourselves regularly stuck on the top of a precipice,
across which, at about 300 yards, we could see one of the men making
off. I took, as I thought, very good aim, making one of the men with
me fire too, but we again missed, whereupon the runaway turned round
and let fly at us, but expecting this we were safely behind a rock,
and I don't think his bullet came near us. I had then to descend, and
before I could hit off another path, the whole lot were out of sight.
It was dreadfully hot, and we were dying of thirst, and not a drop of
water within 3 miles, but of course had to stay until the infantry
came. I sent off one of my two men to Kandahar with news to tell them
the direction the enemy had run in, and I and the other man comfortably
behind a good rock with our carbines ready, waited in hopes of getting
a better shot, but never saw our assailants again. In due course first
some cavalry, and then, after a considerable interval, some infantry
came out to me, and we hunted the hill, but it was so precipitous
and so full of caves that our search was without result. I did not,
of course, accompany this party as I wanted to get back to camp, and
besides was nearly dead with thirst. I cannot, I fear, give a good idea
of the difficulties of climbing or searching this range of hills which
are nothing but limestone rocks, not a tree, blade of grass, or inch of
earth on them, so one might as well be trying to climb the cliffs at
Bundoran, only that these hills are much higher. I dare say you will
think it was a good deal of trouble and time to spend over a small
party of marauders of this kind, and so it was, but my reason was that
I was anxious to impress by practice what I have so often preached,
the necessity for officers and men on such occasions as this always
trying to give as good as they get, and not considering they had done
their duty when they followed the example of Captain Carey and others
by galloping away as fast as they could. With this object in view, I
don't think I was wrong to turn myself for an hour or so into a private
soldier, and do a little skirmishing on foot with a carbine. We had
eight men of the Native Cavalry with us, and they were as staunch as
steel

[Sidenote: Attack exaggerated by messengers sent.]

and very quiet and cool, except the 2 men who I sent into Kandahar with
the order to send me out help, which order I _wrote_, and in a most
guarded way, saying "I want 20 infantry, and a few cavalry as scouts."
However, once away from the influence of the officers, the imagination
of my orderlies magnified the whole affair, and as they rode through
the camp they told every one that the General Sahib had been fired at
and was engaged in a great battle with thousands of the enemy who were
pressing on to Kandahar. This, unfortunately, was believed, and all the
troops were turned out, and a regular commotion got up in the city, and
altogether a very objectionable state of alarm was arrived at. When
I came in and heard of it, I gave all concerned a lecture which they
won't forget, for if there is one thing I hate more than another it
is false alarms, and so far I have not had one. And now I must defend
myself against the idea everyone seems to have that I go about here
rashly, as I really do not, as I always have my escort, and till the
last ten days it was quite safe to move about, and in this particular
instance it never for a moment entered Major Adam's or my mind that
there was the slightest risk going over the Murcha Pass. Had we thought
so we would have avoided it, but once being in the business there was
only one thing for us to do, and that was to see it through. Lots of
men, women, and children had crossed the pass that morning, and we
had met them and spoken to them. My rides are now much circumscribed,
and I don't think just at present of going any distance from camp
merely for _amusement_. Yesterday we went on business, and with what
is considered, and what proved to be, a quite sufficient escort. I
was riding my white horse, Selim, and he behaved like an angel, and
took no notice of the firing, and when I had to dismount at the bad
piece of the pass, followed me up without any difficulty. Afterwards I
fastened him to a stone, and he stood quite quietly there for 4 hours
without giving any trouble. I did not get in till ½ past one, very
thirsty, very hungry, and very hot, but this kind of work never does me
any harm, and I was as fit as possible as soon as I had a bath and my
breakfast.


JULY 22nd.--Heard from the Government of India that Abdul Rahman is to
be proclaimed Amir of Kabul forthwith by Sir D. Stewart. I cannot think
this a wise step, but the desire to get out of the war at any cost
is, I think, blinding the Government to the many weak points in the
arrangement.


JULY 23rd.--Visited the city in order that I might give General
Primrose my views of an idea of his to occupy a certain portion of
it without troops should we be attacked here. The arrangement does
not seem to me to be either necessary or desirable, as I would prefer
keeping all our small force, except the garrison of the Fort and the
City walls, in the open, striking at the enemy whenever opportunity
offered. I have explained this, and I hope it will, if necessity arise,
be carried out. When riding to the Fort this morning I was stopped by
a native who informed me he had something very important to tell me,
which was, that this being the Mahomedan

[Sidenote: Rumours of a rising.]

Sunday (Friday) a rising was to take place to-day. The old gentleman,
who belonged to the Moghul or Persian tribe, who hate the Afghans, was
in an awful fright, and I think he allowed his fears to magnify matters
much. However, I am keeping my eyes open, have taken all precautions,
and am ready, but fear the Afghans won't come to the point.


JULY 24th.--The guard on the Shikarpore Gate of the City was fired on
by some armed men during the night, the fire being returned by the
guard. In reporting the matter to General Primrose, I strongly urged
that the walls and buildings outside the City gates, which afforded
cover to villains of sorts to approach and fire at our guards, should
be demolished. This, however, would have involved much distress and
annoyance to the Afghans, and he did not care to push the matter
strongly (after events, however, proved that the suggestion was a
proper one). We received news that 150 of our cavalry, under General
Nuttall, had completely routed 600 of Ayoob Khan's Cavalry.


JULY 25th.--3 companies of the 28th N.I. arrived from Chaman, a most
welcome addition, small as it is, to our painfully weak force.


JULY 26th.--The guard on the Herat Gate was fired on during the early
morning. I again urged the necessity for demolishing all cover near
the gates, but the measure was deemed too strong. I am determined, if
possible, to catch the scoundrels who go about, and hold parties of
Cavalry and Infantry in readiness all night to go without delay to any
place where firing of this desultory nature is heard. This is harassing
to the troops, but cannot be helped. 2 more companies of the 28th N.I.
arrived.


JULY 27th.--I got information that some of the enemy were concealed in
the hills above old Kandahar, so, obtaining permission from General
Primrose to make a raid on them, I despatched parties of the 7th
Fusiliers and 4th N.I. to see if the report was correct, and if so
to attack and defeat them. I rode out myself in the afternoon to see
how the search through the very difficult ground was being carried on,
and quite approved the arrangements made by Major Marshall who was in
command. No one, however, was found, though there were evident signs
that several places had been recently inhabited, and very hurriedly
evacuated.


[Sidenote: First alarming account of disaster.]

JULY 28th.--I was woke at 1·30 a.m. by Colonel La Touche, of the
Cavalry, who came to report to me that a small portion (a native
officer and 30 men) of one of the Cavalry regiments with General
Burrows' Force had just reached camp, having, they said, rode 60
miles without drawing rein to bring the information of the total
annihilation, by Ayoob Khan's army, of the forc

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/46095