THE GATES OF GHAZNI--VIGNE
Amongst original explorers of Afghanistan place must be found for G.
T. Vigne, who made in 1836 a venturesome, and, as it proved, a most
successful exploration of the Gomul route from the Indus to Ghazni.
Vigne was not a professional geographer so much as a botanist and
geologist, and the value of his work lies chiefly in the results of
his researches in those two branches of science, although he has left
on record a map of his journey which quite sufficiently illustrates
his route. He had previously visited Ladak (Little Tibet) and Kashmir,
and had made passing acquaintance with the Chief of the Punjab, Ranjit
Singh, in whose service foreigners found honourable employment. Masson
was in the field at the same time as Vigne, and the success of his
antiquarian researches in Northern Afghanistan, as well as those of
Honigberger and other archæologists during the time that Dost Mahomed
ruled in Kabul, and whilst the Amir's brother, Jabar Khan, befriended
Europeans, indicated a very different political atmosphere from that
which has subsequently clouded the Afghan horizon, so far as European
travellers are concerned.
Vigne found no difficulty whatever in passing through Punjab territory
to the Indus Valley near Dera Ismail Khan, where he joined a Lohani
khafila which was making its annual journey to Ghazni with a valuable
stock of merchandise consisting chiefly of English goods. In the
genial month of May the khafila left Draband and took the world-old
Gomul route through the frontier hills to the central uplands of
Afghanistan. The heat must have been awful, and as Vigne lived the
life of the Lohani merchants, and shared their primitive shelter from
day to day, it is not surprising that we find him complaining gently
of the climate. The Lohanis treated him with the utmost kindness and
consideration from first to last; and the story of his travels is in
pleasing contrast to the tale told by Masson about the same time, of
his adventures on the Kandahar side. This was due chiefly, no doubt,
to Vigne's success as a doctor. It is always the doctors who make the
best way amongst uncivilized peoples, and India especially (or rather
the British Raj in India) owes almost as much to doctors as to
politicians. There is also a fellow-feeling which binds together
travellers of all sorts and conditions when bound for the same bourne,
taking together the same risks, experiencing the same trials and
difficulties, and enjoying unrestrained intercourse. This kind of
fellowship is world wide. One can trace a genial spirit of
_camaraderie_ pervading the wanderings of Chinese pilgrims, the tracks
of mediæval Arab merchants, the ways of modern missionaries, or the
ocean paths of sailors. Once on the move, with the sweet influences of
primitive nature pervading earth and air around, we may find, even in
these days, that the Afghan becomes quite a sociable companion, and
that he is to be trusted so far as he gives his word.
Vigne seems to have had no trouble whatever except such as arose from
the persistent neglect of his medical instructions in cases of severe
illness. As the khafila followed the Gomul River closely, it was, of
course, subject to attack from the irrepressible Waziris on its flank,
and had to pay heavy duties to the Suliman Khel Ghilzais as soon as it
touched their country. There is little change in these respects since
1836, except that the Gomul route has been made plain and easy through
the first bands of frontier hills till it reaches the plateau, and the
Waziris are under better control. The interest of the journey lies in
that section of it which connects Domandi (the junction of the Gomul
and the Kundar Rivers) with Ghazni. This central part of Afghanistan
has never yet been surveyed. From the Takht-i-Suliman a few peaks have
been indifferently fixed on the ridges which form the divide between
the Gomul and the Ghazni drainage, but the hilly country beyond,
stretching to the Ghazni plain, is absolutely unreconnoitred. We have
still to appeal to Broadfoot and Vigne for geographical authority in
these regions, although native information (but not native surveyors)
has furnished details of a route which sufficiently corresponds with
that of both these enterprising travellers.
There is some confusion about dates in Vigne's account, but it appears
that the khafila reached the Sarwandi Pass (which he calls
Sir-i-koll--7200 feet) over the central divide on the 12th June, and
thence descended into the Kattawaz country on the Ghazni side of this
central water-parting. About this region we have no accurate
geographical knowledge. Beyond the Sarwandi ridge, and intervening
between it and Ghazni, is a secondary pass, called Gazdarra in our
maps, crossing a ridge near the northern foot of which is Dihsai (the
nearest approach to Vigne's Dshara), which was reached by Vigne on the
16th June. Probably the two names represent the same place.
Vigne's description of the central Sarwandi ridge corresponds
generally with what we know in other parts of the nature of those long
sweeping folds which traverse the central plateau from north-east to
south-west, preserving more or less a direction parallel to the
frontier. He writes of it as a broken and tumbled mass of sandstone,
but about "Dshara" he speaks of gently undulating hills exhibiting
small peaks of limestone and denuded patches of shingle. Between the
Sarwandi and the Dshara ridge the plain was covered with glittering
sand and was sweet with the scent of wild thyme. Somewhere on the
"level-topped" Sarwandi ridge there was said to be the ruins of an
ancient city called Zohaka, with gates of burnt brick, which Vigne did
not see, but in his map he indicates a position for it a long way to
the east of the ridge. It is quite probable that the ruins of more
than one ancient city are to be found in the neighbourhood of this
very ancient highway. Ancient as it is, however, it formed no part of
the mediæval commercial system of the Arabs--a system which apparently
did not include the frontier passes into India; and I have failed to
identify Vigne's Zohaka with any previous indications. These uplands
to the south of Ghazni evidently partake of the general
characteristics of the Wardak and Logar Valleys beyond them,
intervening between Ghazni and Kabul. Vigne was enchanted with the
prospect around him, and with the clear sweet atmosphere filled with
the aroma of wild thyme, wormwood, and the scented willow. It has
charmed many a weary soldier since his time.
At Dshara, finding that the Lohani khafila was not going to Ghazni but
intended to follow a straighter route to Kabul, whilst at the same
time a very ready and profitable business was being done in the
well-populated valleys around, Vigne set off by himself with one
Kizzilbash guide for Ghazni. He says many hard things of the Lohanis
for breaking their promise of escort to Ghazni, remarks which seem
scarcely to accord with his free acknowledgments of their great
kindness to him elsewhere. As the opinion of so observant a traveller,
sharing the trials of the road with a band of native merchants, is
always interesting when it concerns the company with which he was
associated, I will quote his opinion of the Lohanis. "Taking them
altogether, I look on the Lohanis as the most respectable of the
Mahomedans and the most worthy of the notice and assistance of our
countrymen. The Turkish gentleman is said to be a man of his word; he
must be an enviable exception; but I otherwise solemnly believe that
there is not a Mahomedan--Sunni or Shiah--between Constantinople and
Yarkand who would hesitate to cheat a Feringi, Frank or European, and
who would not lie and scheme and try to deceive when the temptation
was worth his doing so," etc. This, of course, includes the Lohanis.
At Ghazni, Vigne found a servant of Moorcroft's, who gave him
interesting information about the travels of that unfortunate
explorer; and he takes some useful notes of the present military
position and former condition of that city before its utter
destruction by Allah-u-din, Ghuri. He determined to depart somewhat
from the regular route to Kabul, and diverged from the straight road
which runs to the Sher-i-dahan in order to visit the "bund-i-sultan,"
or reservoir, which had been constructed by Mahmud on the Ghazni River
for the proper water-supply of the town in its palmy days. As his last
day's travel took him to Lungar and Maidan before reaching Kabul he
evidently made a considerable detour westward. He inspected a copper
mine (with which he was greatly disappointed) at a place called Shibar
_en route_. To reach Shibar he made a long day's march from Ser-ab (?
Sar-i-ab), near the head of the Logar River. It is difficult to trace
this part of his route by the light of the map which he borrowed from
Honigberger. He clearly followed up the Ghazni River nearly to its
source, and then struck across to the head of the Logar, where he
correctly places Ser-ab, and where he found an agent of Masson's
engaged in excavating a tope. He next visited Shibar, and finally
marched by Lungar to Maidan and Kabul. He must, therefore, have
crossed the divide between the Ghazni River and the Logar, but we fail
to follow him to the Shibar copper mine.
Shibar is the name of the pass which divides the Turkistan drainage
from the Ghorband, or Kabul, system; but it would be totally
impracticable to reach that point in a day's excursion from Ser-ab. We
must, therefore, conclude that there is another Shibar somewhere,
undetected by our surveyors.
At Kabul he received a hospitable welcome from the Nawab Jabar Khan,
brother of the Amir Dost Mahomed, and here he fell in with Masson. We
need not trace his journey farther, for his subsequent footsteps only
followed the well-worn tracks to the Punjab. To Vigne we owe a vague
reference to a yet earlier English traveller in Afghanistan, one
Hicks, who died and was buried near the Peshawar gate of the old city.
The inscription on his tomb in English was--
HICKS, SON OF WILLIAM AND ELIZABETH HICKS,
and Vigne adds that "by its date he must have lived a hundred and
fifty years ago." This is the earliest record we have of an English
traveller reaching Kabul, and it is strange that nothing is known
about Hicks, who certainly could not have inscribed his own epitaph!
The remarkable feature about the tomb is that such a memorial of a
Christian burial should have remained so long unmolested in a Moslem
country. No vestige of the tomb was discovered during the occupation
of Kabul in 1879-80.