Camp, Candahar, June 8th, 1839.
MY DEAR FATHER,--I begin this letter to you on the 8th of June, 1839,
though when it will reach you, or whether it ever will, is very
doubtful. I have not written, I see, since the beginning of March, from
Larkhanu; there was, however, very little use in so doing, as there was
very little chance of your ever getting it, our friends the Beloochees,
Kaukers, &c., having made free with nearly every mail, and destroyed
them. I am very much afraid that I also have been a sufferer by them,
and that you must have written to me long ere this, but that our friends
of the Bolan Pass have made use of the letter to wrap their cabobs in. I
have not heard from you or from home at all since the 2nd of February,
when I got your letter, dated November 20th, enclosing the bill on
government, and informing me of Kate's intended marriage. I have,
however, long since this heard of my lieutenancy, and seen my name in
the "Gazette," but have not yet received the confirmation of it from Sir
H. Fane in this country, so that I have been fighting my way, and am
likely to continue so, on the rank and pay of a full ensign; however,
there will be so much the more back pay to receive when it does come; it
is a great nuisance, however, not having it, as I require it so much in
this country. You can form no conception of the hopeless expense which
we have inevitably been obliged to incur. We have had a tolerable share
of hardships, &c., and the poor marching soldiers have suffered
terribly. What do you think of our having made a forced march of thirty
to forty miles, for six hours of it under the hottest sun I can
recollect, and I have felt a few of them in India? Since we left
Larkhanu we have met with little but a series of robberies, murders,
alarms, and skirmishes; in short, everything but an actual stand-up
fight, which we were all anxious for, as it would settle matters at
once, and free us from the predatory attacks and cold-blooded murders of
these barbarous tribes.
To begin from where I left off: we marched from Larkhanu on the 11th
March, and reached Dadur, about four miles from the entrance to the
Bolan Pass, the nest of the robber hordes of Kaukers, Tuckers, and
Beloochees, on the 6th of April, having halted several times at
intermediate places, and made some terrible marches, fifteen miles being
the average distance. We often lost our way, and marched thereby a
great deal further than was necessary, through bad guidance. I must tell
you, however, that before leaving Larkhanu, Sir J. Keane assumed the
command of the whole army, both Bengal and Bombay, by which General
Willshire got command of the Bombay division. The two Bombay brigades
were broken up, the Grenadiers and 5th regiment of Native Infantry were
sent to garrison Bukkur, a tolerably strong fort on the Indus, and the
23rd Native Infantry was sent to Lukkur, a town on the opposite side.
There also the different regiments that were to go on sent their sick,
and Bukkur was made a depot for supplies, medical stores, &c. The
greater part of the foot and some of the horse artillery were sent there
also. Our regiment and the 17th were then made into one brigade, and
marched from Larkhanu, as I said before, on the 11th. The cavalry and
horse artillery, &c., did not march for two days after, with the
Commander-in-chief, who took with him his pet corps; the 19th Native
Infantry. They marched by a different route from ourselves on account of
the scarcity of supplies in that desert country; we halted for them at
Kochee, which place we reached on the 15th about 3 P.M., after the
thirty to forty miles' march I before told you of, across the marshy
desert which seems to divide Sinde from Cutch Gundava. This march ought
only to have been twenty-six miles; but owing to the stupidity of our
guide we went a longer and more circuitous route, and also had the
pleasure of losing our way during the night; in addition to which, on
arriving at the village where it was intended to halt, our staff found
out, all of a sudden, that there was not a sufficiency of water for the
whole force, in consequence of which we were moved to another village
(Kichee) five miles further on.
It was during this march that I first witnessed the effects of extreme
thirst on men, however well disciplined. It was, as I have said before,
the hottest day I ever felt; not a breath of air, and the sun enough to
knock you down. The men were suffering dreadfully, and falling out by
sections, when about eleven or twelve o'clock they caught sight of some
water carriers with their mussacks full, so that they knew water could
not be far off. All discipline was pitched to the devil in an instant,
and the men rushed from the ranks for the water more like mad devils
than anything else--nothing could stop them; the mounted officers
galloped in amongst them, and threatened, but to no purpose; nothing
short of cutting them down would have stopped any of them. In the midst
of this, General Willshire, at the head of the brigade, hearing a row
and looking round, saw the greater part of the 17th (they being in front
on this day) scampering across the country like a pack of hounds; not
knowing what was the matter, he galloped up to the colonel and demanded
an explanation, when, seeing what was the cause, he made the best of it,
called a halt, and every one immediately rushed to the wells, the
scenes at which were most ridiculous, fighting, pushing, knocking down
&c. I saw one man actually lie down and wallow in a filthy ditch full of
every description of dirt imaginable. We halted here about two hours,
and then marched to our ground, about six or seven miles further on, the
men performing this latter part of the march with great cheerfulness. We
halted here two days to rest the men, and were joined by the rest of the
Bombay force, with the Commander-in-chief.
We marched again on the 18th, another night march about twenty miles.
Here we made another halt for three days, while some of the staff went
on to get information of the country a-head, about which they were
ignorant. All the villages we had passed through were deserted, and in
some places the water was stinking. We looked back upon Sinde as a
paradise compared to the country we were now in. All the little grain
that was supplied to the bazaars by the commissariat was sold at the
most exorbitant price, yet we were obliged to buy it, and as much as we
could get of it too, and lucky we thought ourselves to get any of it,
even at this rate, at times, in order to feed our horses and camels,
which were beginning to knock up terribly. We could not now, as we used
to do in Sinde, send the latter into the jungle to feed on the small
brushwood, of which they were so fond, except at the risk of being
robbed of them, and having the servants who looked after them murdered
by the bands of Beloochees who hovered about us in every direction.
Still, notwithstanding these annoyances, the humbugging system of
conciliation was kept up, and although there was not an inhabitant to be
seen, we were robbed to our faces very nearly; yet if a poor sub.'s
horse or camel happened to break his ropes and strayed into a field he
was immediately pounced upon by a provost-marshal and put into a sort of
pound, from which he was not released except on the payment of a certain
sum to be given to the owners of the field! Where were they to be found?
The loss of camels now was irreparable; even if there were any to be
sold, the prices asked were so exorbitant that few of us youngsters,
hampered as we were, could afford to purchase; loss of camels produced
loss of kit, loss of kit produced loss of health, &c. Yet during the
whole of this march we were losing camels through robberies and fatigue,
and no measures taken that we ever heard of to put a stop to it. We
marched from this place on the 22nd, and came to a halt again at a place
called Kotrie, close under the Hala mountains, about five miles from the
Gundava Pass. Here we (i.e., our brigade and the 4th Light Dragoons)
halted for a week. Sir J. Keane pushed on a-head with two troops of
Light Cavalry and the left wing of the 19th Native Infantry, in order to
catch up Sir Willoughby Cotton, who was marching in command of the main
body of the Bengal division. General Willshire, with the staff,
artillery, and cavalry, was at Gundava, about eight miles from us. At
this place, Kotrie, which the inhabitants luckily had not deserted, we
were better off in point of supplies than we had been since we left
Larkhanu, and there was plenty of shooting and fishing; but it was
without exception the hottest place I ever was in. Being close under a
high range of mountains, we were perfectly screened from any cool
breezes that might take it into their heads to blow from that quarter;
add to this, the hills themselves, being composed of granite, or some
stone of that description, attracted the sun, and reflected the heat
back again on us, so that we were attacked from two sides at once. By
this time we had no stronger liquor with us than tea, so that we were
perfectly eligible to become members of the Tea-total Temperance
Society; our supplies in the liquor line, which we had sent on from
Hydrabad to Larkhanu by water, not having reached the latter place in
time for us to get them. In this respect the men were better off than
ourselves, they having their dram or two every day. Here the robbers
began to be more bold, and we did not lose sight of them until we
reached Candahar. Five mails (one of them an "overland," bringing,
perhaps, letters from you or some one at home) out of six were robbed
between this and Shikarpoor; and news was received from Sir J. Keane in
advance that at the entrance of the Bolan Pass several bodies of sepoys
of Shah Shooja's army were lying, there having been a grand skrimmage
there between the sepoys and Beloochees, in which the former, being
caught napping, were worsted. We stayed at this place, as I said before,
a week, and started again on the 31st.
On the morning of the 2nd of April, during a severe march of twenty-two
miles, one of our men, a straggler, who had fallen to the rear with
dysentery, was murdered by these robbers, and another man of the 17th
cruelly wounded, but he has since recovered. They were sitting together
by the side of the road, when of a sudden a party of Beloochees rushed
out from some low bushes, and, before either had time to rise, fired
into them. Adams, of the Queen's, received a ball on the outside of his
right thigh, passing down, and coming out at his knee on the other side,
and cutting some particular vein or artery, which occasioned his death
through loss of blood. The 17th man was hit on the right side, the ball
coasting round his body, and coming out at the other side, without
touching his tripes or any vital part. Adams had not his firelock with
him, but the 17th man had his, but unloaded, and, in his struggles to
keep possession of it, received some desperate sabre cuts; but he has
since recovered. Of course he was soon overpowered, as Adams could give
no assistance. The Beloochees then stripped them of everything, except
their shirt and trowsers, and left them to their fate, till another man
of the 17th came up, in charge of some of his company's camels, who
brought in the news to camp; but the apothecary who went out was too
late to save poor Adams. It was gratifying to know that Cunningham,
with a party of his horse, having received intelligence that a party of
these blackguards were encamped in a jungle, beat through it, and
followed their tracks for fourteen miles, when he came upon them, and
killed six and took four prisoners; Cunningham having outstripped his
party, killed two men himself and took another prisoner. These rascals
were brought into camp, and strictly guarded, or I believe they would
have been torn to pieces by the European soldiers. One of them was sworn
to by the wounded 17th man as being one of the murderers, and we were
all in great hopes of seeing the blackguards dancing the tight rope;
but, instead of that, they were all brought on (except one, who being
badly wounded, died on the road) to Dadur, where they were given up to
one of the political diplomatic gentlemen, who, it is said, actually let
them go with five rupees to carry them home. Fancy a Beloochee's _home!_
This was carrying the conciliation principle far with a vengeance!
We started again at half-past twelve, on the night of the 3rd--another
night-march of nineteen miles. Both the nights we were at this place we
were alarmed by a supposed attack of Beloochees; but they turned out to
be nothing more than a loose horse or two of the dragoons, for which one
of their camp-followers suffered, being taken for a Beloochee, while
running after one of the horses, and therefore cut down by a dragoon on
sentry. The night we left this place was one of the most fearful I ever
remember; it had been threatening all the afternoon, and about eight the
simoom came on with dreadful violence, blowing for five minutes at a
time, at intervals of twenty minutes or so, until we got under weigh, at
half-past twelve. The wind, hot and scorching, like a blast from a
furnace, rushed over the country with the violence of a hurricane,
bringing with it perfect clouds of dust and sand, so that it was totally
impossible to face it, except at the risk of being actually blinded or
stifled. The baggage was to have gone on before us at nine o'clock, as
the moon was expected to be up, but the clouds of dust, &c., completely
hid her from us, and she did not shew her nose the whole night. During
the blasts it was the most perfect "darkness visible" that you can
imagine, and at the intervals when it ceased, the sensation of the
atmosphere was more like standing before a hot fire than anything else.
I had read of these things before in novels, travels, &c; I now, for the
first time, experienced the reality. Add to all these little annoyances,
we were every moment expecting a rush of Beloochees; and if they had had
the pluck of a hare, they might have considerably crippled our
proceedings, by rushing in and ham-stringing our camels. The darkness,
the unavoidable confusion, the awkwardness of the camels themselves, all
favoured them, and I expected nothing less; if they had been Cossacks
instead, they would have played the very devil with us altogether. At
length, at half-past eleven, the baggage got off, and now for the first
time with a baggage guard, consisting of a troop, or company, from each
of the three regiments, together with all the irregular horse we
possessed, with strict orders that any Beloochees shewing themselves at
all near the baggage were instantly to be cut down or bayoneted. The
main body followed in another hour, with a strong rear-guard, to pick up
stragglers, &c. These precautions ought to have been taken before, and
poor Adams would have been saved. I know very little of this march, as I
remember I slept through the whole of it, until morning, on horseback,
being terribly fatigued and worn out. The morning was delightfully cool,
with a fresh bracing breeze from the north. You may well imagine how we
enjoyed it, after the terrible relaxation of the night before. We
reached our ground about seven, at a place called Nonsherah. Here we
heard some bloody-minded reports of the Beloochees, who had been
plundering the artillery and left wing of the 19th, which were here the
day before. They seemed, however, to have made a pretty good
retaliation, and four Beloochees' heads were stuck upon the walls of the
town, in proof of the soldiers' vengeance. In consequence of there being
a good baggage-guard, the Beloochees made themselves tolerably scarce
during this march, although the ground was very favourable for them.
However, they now and then took long shots from the nullahs, &c., that
were near the road, but without doing any damage. At last, a soldier,
from the baggage-guard company of the 17th, having occasion to fall out,
and going into a nullah for his purpose, unexpectedly found himself
cheek by jowl with thirty of these rascals. He was knocked down, but
bellowing out most lustily, his section came up, and being joined by
another section of the Queen's, they shot about six of them dead, and
put the rest to flight, having rescued the 17th man. The robbers at this
place were _rather_ forward, and actually walked off with some camels
that were out feeding close to the rear of our encampment, in the middle
of the day. They were, however, all recovered very soon by the
Irregulars, and those of the robbers who could not manage to escape,
managed to get their heads broken by these surwars; and intelligence
having been received that a whole gang, with their families, were
encamped near us, a party of fourteen, and one jemadar, of the 1st Light
Cavalry, were sent out, who coming unexpectedly upon them, the robbers
advanced to shew fight, when the jemadar gave the word to fire, and each
trooper brought down his bird. The rest immediately took to their heels,
and owing to the nature of the ground (it was among the hills) effected
their escape. The troopers returned to camp with the swords and shields,
&c., of the fallen. From this place we marched again the next morning,
and a short and easy march brought us to Dadur.
_June 27th_.--I have not been able to write much lately, as it was
literally too hot to do so. We have had it from 115 to 120 in our tents
during the day; for the last week, however, it has been getting cooler,
and to-day is pleasant enough. I wished also to keep the letter open as
long as I could; but now, since we march on Sunday next, the 30th, I
have not much time left, though I have a great deal more to say. I
received by the mail the confirmation of my lieutenancy, by Sir H. Fane,
from Bombay. An "overland" arrived again here last night, but no letters
or anything for me. I see, by the English papers, that there was a
report at home that we had lost 3000 men already--the greatest lie
possible. If we had lost that, we should have lost more than half the
Bombay army. We have not lost more than we generally do in quarters,
though the men have been, terribly knocked up, and well they may be,
with the horrible marches they have made. I was very much amused by the
debates in Parliament, with regard to our "military promenade," as some
of the papers call it. I wish I could see some of their writers on an
out-lying picket, with a prospect of a twenty miles' march, I rather
think they would not talk so much of "promenading." The Bengal army,
with our cavalry, and most of the artillery, marched this morning for
Cabool. Shah Shooja goes to-morrow or next day, and we bring up the
rear, as I said before, on Sunday. However, we will talk of that anon,
or I shall forget where I left off. On looking back, I find that I have
brought the force up as far as Dadur. Well; we halted there till the
12th. The 17th, artillery and Irregular Horse, however, marched before
us, on the 9th. While there, the rascally Beloochees and Kaukers kept
hovering about us, and walked off with some camels and a horse or two.
They generally, however, paid very dearly for them, as the cavalry that
were sent after them on these occasions made a terrible example of them.
While here we heard of a shocking murder at Curachee. A Captain Hand, of
the 1st Bombay Grenadier Regiment, was taking his morning's ride, when,
on turning a corner on the top of a hill, he unexpectedly found himself
in the midst of about thirty Beloochees. They talked to him very
civilly, and he allowed them to get round his horse, not suspecting
anything, when one rascal behind him gave him a terrible wipe on the
back of his head with his sword, which knocked him off his horse, and
the others rushed in, and cut him to pieces. A Lieut. Clarke, of the
same corps, happened to be riding this way, and seeing these Beloochees,
asked them if they had seen a Latich pass that way, meaning Hand; to
which they replied by a volley from their matchlocks, a ball from one of
which struck Clarke on the leg, and he galloped for camp as fast as he
could, and fell off his horse exhausted before the quarter-guard of H.M.
40th regiment. A party was immediately sent out, and they found the
body of poor Hand horribly mutilated. A good number of these rascals
have been since taken, and, I suppose, hanged; unless the conciliation
principle lets these rascals off also. They belong to different bands,
under different robber-chiefs, among the hills. These robber Khans have
strongholds on the almost inaccessible mountains that run up the whole
west frontier of Sinde, and divide it from Beloochistan. All merchandize
and travellers passing through Sinde to the west of the Indus are
obliged to pay a sort of black mail to these Khans to be allowed to pass
through; but so bad is their name for treachery, ferocity, &c., that
few, if any, of the traders between India and Central Asia go this
route. They do not care a farthing for the Ameers, who also secretly
connive at their proceedings, in order to draw recruits from them on any
emergency.
Well; we got the steam up again on the 12th, and, together with the 4th
Light Dragoons, and about sixty Irregulars, started for the celebrated
Bolan Pass, with a great quantity of commissariat stores from Bukkur,
for the army in advance, under our charge. This celebrated Pass would be
the best line of communication between the countries of Central Asia and
Sinde; and as far as the Pass is concerned itself, it is quite guiltless
of the bad character it holds. It is merely the bed of a winter torrent,
and is an easy ascent the whole way through; and during the greater
part of the year quite passable for any description, of conveyance; but
in consequence of the great number of robbers, from all parts of
Beloochistan and Sinde, who infest it, no one thinks of travelling this
route, unless with a very strong escort. A great number, therefore, of
native merchants, &c., took advantage of the opportunities offered by
the passage of it by the different divisions of our army. We had with us
a native horse-dealer, who had travelled the same way down the year
before, with horses for the Bombay market, and, as he considered, with a
sufficient escort; but they were suddenly attacked, his brother killed,
and he only saved himself by the swiftness of his horse. These robbers
are several degrees more savage than even their brother Beloochees in
the south of Sinde. There are two clans of them. The Kaukers and
Tuckers; of these, the Kaukers are by far the worst. They are
represented as being regular barbarians, and are even said to be
cannibals, though perhaps that is a little too melodramatic. They
possess few fire-arms, but roll down large pieces of rock in the narrow
passes, and rush out from the small recesses of the rocks, leading God
knows where, which abound in every part. They never spare any one, and
cut and hack about the bodies of their victims in the most frightful
manner. With all this they are the greatest cowards possible; a few
determined men would be a match for the greatest odds; but the very name
of Kauker seems to convey terror in it to a traveller. I saw the head
of one of these rascals lying about at Dadur, and it was the most
frightful face I ever beheld, more like a wild beast's than a human
being's. On entering the Pass, which we did as if expecting an enemy,
with skirmishers, flanking parties, &c., we were nearly stifled by the
horrible smell arising from the number of dead camels which were lying
on the ground, in every degree of putrefaction. We soon, however, came
to bodies of a different sort; for on the banks of a small rivulet, and
in the water, most in the long reeds, some in the middle of the road,
were about twenty or thirty dead Sepoys and followers. They were in
every kind of shape and contortion that could indicate a violent death.
Some were in a tolerable state of preservation, but others, again, had
been sadly mauled; tripes torn out by jackals, and one or two were
perfect skeletons. We kept on coming also upon an arm or a leg, or an
ugly-looking skull; but the most disgusting sight was an arm and leg,
protruding out of the centre of the stream, washed to the consistency of
a washer-woman's hand after a hard day's washing. If you can fancy all
this on a dark, sluggish-looking stream, surrounded by high and barren
rocks, you may, perhaps, guess what feelings of disgust it excited in
us. However, before reaching Candahar we were pretty well accustomed to
these sights, and got rather callous on the subject, as there was a fair
sprinkling of them to be met with all the way to that town. Well; we
made five marches through this delightful Pass, and debouched on a fine
wide plain on the 17th. Not a stick, not a particle of forage, except
some high rank grass, was to be got in all this time, and we had been
obliged to take on supplies for our camels and horses from Dadur; so
there was a new expense, and new carriage to be provided. The robbers
did not attempt any attack upon us at all (though, if they had had the
slightest pluck, they might have crippled us pretty considerably) except
in the last march, but then we fired on them first. My company was on
baggage-guard this day, which was sent on in advance of the column; and
Halket, seeing some of the rascals on the hills, had a crack at them
with his double-barrel, which produced a reply of three shots from them;
but a soldier of the company taking a beautiful aim at one of them, at a
distance I am afraid to mention, and nearly knocking a fellow's head
off, the rest took to their heels, and we saw no more of them. Our
Grenadiers, however, who were bringing up the rear, had a slight
skrimmage with them, and killed five or six, without any of their shots
taking effect, although one man's firelock and another man's belt were
cut in half by a bullet. They fired on the column which came on
afterwards, and wounded one trooper of the Light Dragoons, and a few
native followers, and killed three horses. Most of us lost a deal of kit
in this Pass, owing to the camels' feet knocking up, from the sharpness
of the stones; and the very moment the column was off the ground the
rascals would be down and fighting for what was left behind. I was on
rear-guard the second day's march, and the very moment we cleared the
ground it was most amusing to see the rascals popping out of the holes
in the rocks in every direction.
On the 18th, we reached Siriab, where we halted for one day. This was a
rather pretty valley, with some fruit gardens, but the fruit not ripe.
Here I was taken unwell, and obliged to go on the sick-list; I had been
ailing some time; the doctor, however, put me off the list again on the
24th; but owing to the fatigue &c. I underwent on 25th, in going through
the Ghwozhe Pass, I caught a violent fever, and the next day was laid on
my beam ends, and did not get round again till the middle of last month.
In the Ghwozhe Pass our company was on baggage guard. We left our last
encamping ground at 3 A.M. on the 25th; we had only four miles to the
Pass, and the Pass was five more, when we reached our new ground, so it
was not more than nine miles altogether, yet it was 10 o'clock at night
before the rear-guard, bringing up the fag end of the baggage, came in.
For nearly the whole of this day I was exposed to an infernally hot sun,
and the stench arising from the dead cattle was really frightful. I was
also literally twenty-six hours without getting a morsel to eat or a
drop to drink, and but the day before on the sick-list. No wonder I was
laid up! This Ghwozhe Pass was a great deal worse than any part of the
Bolan. It was nothing but a succession of the most difficult ascents
and precipitous descents; the most trying kind of ground for the poor
camels, who fell down in great numbers, and in some parts the path lay
between two high rocks, and was only four feet wide; how the artillery
got over it I cannot imagine. A handful of determined men could, I
should think, defend it against an army. We were on the _qui vive_ the
whole time, expecting an attack on the baggage, but we only lost a few
camels. Here we caught up the 17th and artillery, which left Dadur
before us. If our toils had been great, those of the 17th and artillery
were twice as much, as it took them two days and two nights to get the
guns through, and they were obliged to bivouack in the Pass, and were
attacked once or twice by the Ghiljees; whom, however, one section or so
easily drove off. I must now tell you that on leaving the Bolan Pass the
Kaukers &c. made their bows to us, but handed us at the same time over
to the care of their intimate friends the Ghiljees. These are a kind of
half-civilized robbers, a large clan, and abound throughout the whole of
Afghanistan. Their chief is a friend of Dost Mahomed. They gave us a
little annoyance on the road, but whenever they did so they managed to
get the worst of it. They murdered a few poor camp followers. At one
place they fired on some grass-cutters belonging to the 4th Light
Dragoons, after coming among them and talking with them in a friendly
manner, as is their usual custom, in order to ascertain what might be
the chance of an attack. A troop of that corps was immediately sent out,
with nearly all the officers. Some villagers who had been bringing
things to our camp joined the robbers, but the 4th played the d--l with
them, killing or wounding about forty, and only one horse belonging to
the 4th was wounded. Major Daly, who commands the corps, killed four men
himself with a simple bamboo hunting spear, used for killing boars. Sir
J. Keane had fourteen of them shot that had been caught stealing camels
at Quittah, one march from Siriab, where we left our sick: a brigade of
the Bengal army is quartered there.
Well; in spite of Ghiljees, Kaukers, Passes, &c., we reached Candahar on
the 4th of May, having only halted two days since we left Dadur,--pretty
good work! We were very much disappointed in the country, which is
little better than a desert, and the weather cruelly hot. I remember
very little of what occurred after I was on the sick-list, except that
on arriving at our ground at one place, after a march of eighteen miles,
we found that the natives had destroyed the well which was to have
supplied us with water,--pleasant news for a man laid up with fever; in
consequence of which they made a good profit by bringing it in for sale.
About as much as would fill two moderate-sized pitchers was sold for
half a rupee, about 14d. My European servant came and begged to be
allowed to drink the water in my basin with which I had just washed
myself, and before I could say anything, drank down the whole of it with
a zest as if it had been champagne.
We reached Candahar on the 4th, and on the 8th his Majesty Shah
Shooja-ool-Moolk was crowned, after which there was a review of all the
troops that were here by his Majesty, a grand "tomasha;" but such, I am
told, was the unpopularity of the Shah that out of the whole population
of Candahar very few persons were looking on, though the Easterns are
devoted sight-hunters. On the -- he held a levee, where every officer
had the honour of making his leg to his Majesty. I was not present at
either of these grand occasions, being at the time still on the
sick-list. I, however, had a glimpse of his Majesty the other morning as
he was taking his airing. He is a fine-looking man, with a splendid
black beard. I am told that he is a very accomplished man, but an
exceedingly bad ruler. He has written his own life, which is said to be
very interesting: I should think it must be so, as few men have
experienced so many changes of fortune as he has. You will find a very
good description of him, as well as of Cabool and Sinde, in "Burnes'
Travels in Bokhara," the present Sir Alexander Burnes, who is second in
command to Macnaghten, and a great deal with the Shah. I read also an
excellent article on this country &c. in the last December or January
number of "Blackwood's Magazine."
Another horrible murder, somewhat similar to that of Capt. Hand,
occurred here about the middle of last month. Two officers of the 16th
Lancers, Inverarity and Wilmer, went one day on a fishing excursion to a
small river about seven miles from this; several parties had been there
before on pic-nic excursions, as it was much cooler, and there were some
beautiful gardens, with lots of fruit, on the banks of the stream. There
is a slight hill to be crossed in getting to it, at the top of which is
a cut-throat narrow pass, formed out of the rock; you must pass through
it in single file, and the bottom being of rock is so slippery and rough
that it is with difficulty a horse can keep his footing on it. They were
returning home about half-past eight o'clock, when Wilmer, being rather
wrong in his stomach, got off his horse for a short time, and Inverarity
said he would walk to the top of the hill to look at the view by
moonlight; Wilmer followed in a few minutes on foot, his ghorewalla
following with his horse. On coming near the top of the hill before
mentioned, he was somewhat astonished at a large stone whizzing by his
head, and immediately afterwards about six or seven men jumped on him
out of the rocks. He had time to draw back, and received two different
cuts on his walking stick, which cut it through, and slightly wounded
him on the forehead. He managed to draw back from another, which was
made at him with such strength that the fellow fell with the force of
his own blow. Wilmer then thought it as time to cut and run, and bolted
as fast as he could with these chaps after him. They luckily, however,
stopped to rob his and Inverarity's bangies, containing their kit, which
they met his servant carrying, &c. Wilmer did not stop till he reached a
detachment of the Shah's force which is stationed there, he returned
with a party from them, and on reaching the other side of the hill found
poor Inverarity lying on the ground dreadfully mutilated; he was not
quite dead when they came up, and Wilmer says he can never forget the
convulsive shudder he gave on their arrival, taking them for the
murderers returning to finish him. He died, however, almost immediately,
merely saying, "For God's sake, look at my hands! I am afraid I am very
badly wounded." Thus fell another victim, as we all feel, to the
conciliation principle! Neither Inverarity's horse nor anything of then
kit has been since seen, though Wilmer has recovered his horse. This
will give you a pretty idea of the country we are living in. The next
day there was an order out from Sir J. Keane, in which, after giving an
account of the murder, he begged all officers never to go out into the
country on sporting expeditions unless in large parties and well armed.
The Shah and Sir John were also on the point of burning down the village
near which the murder occurred, but the political department would not
allow it. Seven or eight men were, however, taken up, though nothing
certain has been proved. They are still in chains in the town; what will
be done with them I don't know. I always have my holster pipes, and
pistols loaded, whenever I ride out, as there is nothing like being
prepared.
I have little to say of Candahar, which appears to me to be just the
same as every other town I have seen in the East, very dirty, &c. It
stands in a tolerably fertile plain, with hills scattered all round it.
It is a perfect square, each side of which is nearly a mile in length;
two streets, one from north to south, the other from east to west, run
through it, and bisect each other in the centre: in these are the
different bazaars. The rest of the town, as it appeared to me as I rode
round the walls the other day, is perfectly deserted. There are double
walls to the town, entire all the way round, but I should think it could
be easily taken. A great number of the inhabitants have left it on
account of the dearness of provisions, occasioned by the hungry mouths
of so large a force as ours, and also because, on his first arrival, the
Shah wished to play some of his old arbitrary acts over again.
The Ghiljees have been at their old tricks lately, robbing some supplies
for the army, which came up by the Bolan Pass about a week ago, and
which they followed nearly into our camp. The caravan, however, was
under the charge of a right sort of fellow, the Rajah of Buhawulpoor,
who was bringing up a contingent to the Shah's force, and if any of his
camels were taken away he took two for one from the first village he
arrived at. The Ghiljees got more bold afterwards, and actually
endeavoured to walk off with the camels of the Bengal army, and five or
six were taken prisoners by some Sepoys, and one blown from a gun in the
town. They, however, killed one, and severely wounded two other unarmed
soldiers of H.M. 13th Light Infantry, who were out with the camels of
their regiment, the guard for the camels having very quietly gone to
sleep in a house. The poor fellows made a desperate fight, defending
themselves with their shoes; and one of them pulled a mounted Ghiljee
off his horse, but had his arm cut through before he could get the
fellow's sword from him: they lost a great many camels.
_June 29th_.--Well, to-morrow we are off for Cabool; I hope the country
may improve as we advance. Everybody speaks very highly of Cabool
itself--a fine climate, 6000 feet above the sea. It has been very hot
the whole time we have been here. They say there is plenty of grain to
be had on the road; I hope this may be true, and that we shall not have
a repetition of what took place before in regard to expense. I was
congratulating myself, a day or two since, on the prospect of getting my
back pay, but now I hear that I shall not only be minus that, but that
we are not to get any more pay for three months, owing to some
mismanagement or other; consequently, we shall be obliged to get into
debt, with a nice little interest to pay off. I wish, therefore, that
next year you would give me credit for another 60l. I do not wish you
to send it out to me, but that you would let me draw upon you as far as
that sum, in case I should find it necessary, as this campaign has sadly
crippled me. Your last 60l. is nearly gone, and yet I have not spent a
farthing that I could help: this irregular way of paying troops is very
disgusting to them.
The report is now that we are not likely to have any regular fighting,
as it is pretty generally believed that Dost Mahomed has agreed to our
terms; the "on dit" is, that he is at Peshawur, and awaits our arrival
in Cabool, to give himself up to the British government. Colonel Wade,
one of the political diplomatic line, is near Peshawur with a part of
Runjet's army, but Dost Mahomed will not surrender himself to him, nor
will Colonel Wade cross the Punjab frontiers, on account of the great
enmity which exists between the Afghans and Sikhs: however, all this is
to be proved. I wish we could have one good brush with them, as we
should then have plain sailing; as it is, I suppose we shall be annoyed
by these rascally Ghiljees all the way up: out-lying pickets to take
care of camels, &c. With regard to the climate of this country I can say
little, as we have only been here during the hot weather, and hot we
have found it with a vengeance; but then we have been living in tents.
One man of ours has died by a coup de soleil; he was one of the camel
guard. I do not consider the climate an unhealthy one. It is a very
lucky thing for us that we were not left in Sinde: the troops left there
have suffered terribly. Sinde is one of the hottest places in the
world, and very unhealthy; in fact, I consider it to be about one of the
most disgusting countries in the world. The 17th regiment lost an
officer there under very melancholy circumstances. He was coming up to
join his regiment, having been only lately appointed to it, and lost his
way in that dreadful desert I told you of, where he wandered in a
wretched state for two days, during which time the simoom came on, and
he died from its effects a short time after reaching his tent; the
simoom was still so violent that his servants were obliged to dig his
grave inside his tent: his body turned black immediately after death.
We have had excellent European fruit here, and the gardens about the
place are very large and beautiful--peaches, apricots, cherries, apples,
grapes, and mulberries. I never tasted anything more delicious than the
melons here. You cannot imagine, in your temperate climate, how
refreshing they are on a hot day; but, then, they are said to be very
dangerous. The vegetables, too, are good, particularly to those who had
been without them so long as we had. There are peas, beans, salad,
cucumber, but, unfortunately, no potatoes; what would we not give for a
nice mealy murphy! we have not tasted one for four months; however, in
all these respects Cabool is much superior. What we shall do when we
reach that place I cannot imagine,--one thing, the Hindoo Koosh,
prevents our marching further. The report is, that if everything goes
smooth we shall go back again this year; but this I do not believe, as
I hardly think it probable that the government would be at such expense
in marching us such a distance just to keep us at Cabool for a month,
and if we overstay that it will be too late, and the snow and severity
of the climate will hinder our returning. Moreover, Runjet Sing is very
ill, and, they say, is likely to kick, in which case there will, I take
it, be a regular shindy in the Punjab; and John Company, when he has
once put his foot into a country, does not withdraw it very soon.
Besides, there is Herat and Persia to be looked to. For my part, I have
no objection to a winter in Cabool; and if we can only get up our
supplies in the liquor line, we shall, I have no doubt, make ourselves
very comfortable. The 16th Lancers have an excellent pack of foxhounds
with them, and horses are very cheap. There are to be races &c. on a
grand scale also when we get there; and if we can get our supplies up by
that time, we may look forward to spending a merry Christmas even in
such a distant country. How curious all this must sound to you in your
quiet, lovely home of Brookhill. I have often thought of you all during
this campaign, particularly the other day, when I had the fever; and I
hope and trust my life maybe spared that I may see you all once more,
particularly as I have never seen you at Brookhill.
With regard to myself, my health, with the exception of the fever, has
been much better than I could have expected, considering what we have
gone through. I have, however, been sadly bothered the whole time I
have been in the country with rheumatism; at times, during the march, I
was so bad with it that I could not walk ten minutes at a time. I have
also had terrible pains in the joints of my arms, and have them still,
and it is with difficulty I can get a gun to my shoulder. I can walk
pretty well now, but running is totally out of the question; so that I
am afraid I should come off poorly in a hand-to-hand encounter with
these rascals. I applied to the doctor for some medicine, but he said
"he could give me none;" in fact, they will not give an officer any
medicine now unless he is very seriously ill, as they are very short of
medical stores.
I hope you may be able to get through this letter; the blue paper I have
been writing on is Russian, and bought in Candahar. I do not think I
have anything more to say. I will write again when I reach Cabool. Tell
Kate I will write to her too: I hope she got my letter which I wrote in
January last under cover to you.
With best love to all at home,
Believe me your very affectionate son,
T.W.E. HOLDSWORTH.
P.S.--By-the-bye, there is an officer here in H.M. 13th Light Infantry,
with the Bengal force, who knows Arthur very well, in fact, I think a
great deal better than I do myself. His name is Wood; he is a
Canterbury man, and seems to know Mr. Baylay and everybody else there.
He was in the 48th when Arthur was at Canterbury with the 4th Drag.
Guards. He desired to be kindly remembered to Arthur when I wrote. I
hope Eliza's hooping-cough is well. I was very sorry to hear of poor
Sluman's death: as far back as I can recollect he is always associated
in my mind with home. I hope Ghiljee, Kauker, Beloochee, and Co., will
let this pass.