ARRIVAL AT KABUL.
Arrival at Jelalabad. Reception by the Governor. The Palace. The
Town. The Plain. Quarters in the Guest Pavilion. The friendly Khan.
Tattang and the gunpowder factory. The Royal gardens at Nimla.
The Suffêd Koh mountains. Arboreal distribution in Afghanistan.
Gundamuk. Assassination of Cavagnari: details of the plot. The “Red
bridge.” Commencement of mountainous ascent to Kabul. Jigdilik.
Massacre of British in 1837. Former dangers of the valley of
Katasang. Enterprising peasants. Tomb in the Sei Baba valley.
Burial customs. The Lataband Pass and the Iron Cage. Distant view
of Kabul. The Amîr’s projected road at Lataband. The approach to
Kabul. The Lahore Gate.
We arrived at Jelalabad about the middle of the afternoon. The town is
fortified; surrounded by a high wall, with bastions and loopholes; and
is in a good state of repair. We entered one of the massive gates, rode
through the bazaars to the Palace. The bazaars, like those of Kabul,
are roughly roofed over to keep out the glare of the sun.
The Governor of Jelalabad received us in the Palace gardens: seats were
placed in the shade: fans were waved by the page boys to keep off the
flies; and a crowd of people stood around. Sweets were brought--chiefly
sugared almonds--then tea and cigarettes, and bouquets of flowers.
We rested for a while, and as we smoked the Governor made the usual
polite Oriental speeches. Then he invited us to see the interior of the
Palace. It is a large white building, standing in the midst of well
laid out gardens, in which are many varieties of Eastern and European
fruit-trees and flowers. The Palace was semi-European in its internal
decoration. It was unfinished at this time. There was a large central
hall with a domed roof, and smaller rooms at the side: a separate
enclosure was built for the ladies of the harem: near by were kitchens,
rooms for the Afghan bath, and a Guest house or pavilion in a garden of
its own.
[Sidenote: Jelalabad.]
The town of Jelalabad is between ninety and a hundred miles from
the Indian frontier town Peshawur, and contains, in the summer, a
population of from three to four thousand inhabitants. There is one
chief bazaar or street with shops. The other streets are very narrow.
Though much smaller it resembles in style the city of Kabul, which I
will describe presently.
The spot was chosen by Bâber Bâdshah, the Tartar king, founder of the
Mogul dynasty of Afghanistan and India. He laid out some gardens here,
but the town of Jelalabad was built by his grandson, Jelaluddin Shah,
also called Akbar, in 1560 A.D., just about the time when
Queen Elizabeth came to the throne. The place is interesting to us from
the famous defence of Sir Robert Sale during the first Afghan war, when
he held the town from November, 1841, to April, 1842.
The river which runs near the town is here broad and rapid, though
shallow and with low banks. All along the river for miles the plain is
marshy and overgrown with reeds. In the summer when the swamp is more
or less dried up, one rides through the reeds rather than keep to the
glare and heat of the road. The plain of Jelalabad, nearly two thousand
feet above the sea, is about twenty miles long, that is, from east to
west, and four or five miles wide. Wherever it can be irrigated from
the Kabul river it is delightfully fertile, but everywhere else it is
hot barren desert. The climate of Jelalabad is much more tropical than
that of Kabul--more resembling the climate of Central India; and in
the winter the nomadic Afghans of the hills in the Kabul province pack
their belongings on donkeys or bullocks, and with their whole families
move down to Jelalabad, so that the winter population of the town is
enormously greater than that of the summer.
Palm trees and oranges grow out in the gardens: pomegranates and grapes
in great quantities; and there are many kinds of tropical as well as
sub-tropical flowers. His Highness the Amîr had an idea a short time
ago of establishing a tea plantation here. It is doubtful, however,
whether it would be successful, for in the summer there is the dust
storm and the scorching wind--the simûm.
After taking leave of the Governor we were shown into the Guest
pavilion in its enclosed garden. Here arrangements had been made for us
to spend the night. On the north side, where the pavilion overlooks the
Kabul river, was a stone colonnade or verandah with pillars. A sentry
was stationed here and also at the gate of the garden. One of the
Khans had asked permission to entertain us at dinner, and with Afghan
hospitality he provided also for the guard, servants, and horses. He
did not dine with us but came in afterwards for a chat. I noticed that
in spite of being a Mahomedan he did not refuse a cigarette and some
whiskey. This gentleman we were told had considerable power in the
neighbourhood of Gundamuk, and we were advised, in case it should ever
be necessary to escape from Kabul, to remember his friendliness; for
though Gundamuk is a long way from Kabul, one could ride there in a day.
Next day we had a gallop through the fertile part of the valley. I had
changed my mare for a steadier horse and my mind was peaceful. Away
to the south it was stony and bare, and in the distance we could see
the snow-capped range of the Suffêd Koh or White Mountains. We did not
go very many miles, but put up at the village of Tattang. Some of the
villages are built entirely as forts, resembling those in the Khyber
district. In others there is a similar but smaller fort, which is
occupied by the Malek or some rich man with his immediate retainers;
the other houses, flat topped and built of sun-dried bricks, are
clumped irregularly together near the fort. But the windows, for safety
and to ensure privacy, generally open into a walled garden or yard, so
that even these have the appearance of being fortified. The villages
are surrounded by orchards and fields.
[Sidenote: Gunpowder Factory at Tattang.]
At Tattang the Amîr has a gunpowder factory, and the superintendent
showed us over it. The machinery is of wood, roughly made, and is
worked by water power. The water is obtained from a stream rising in
the Suffêd Koh mountains, and is led by broad channels to the water
wheels. Along the channels, and indeed along most of the irrigation
canals that one sees in the country, are planted poplars or willows;
these protect the canal banks from injury, and possibly lessen by
their shade the rapid evaporation of water that takes place in a dry
hot climate. The gunpowder is not for sale, and severe penalties are
inflicted on those detected selling or stealing any.
The following day we left the cultivated part of the valley and rode
through a stony desert and over pebbly mountains to Nimla. Contrasted
with the pleasant ride through the fields of the day before, the heat
and glare were most oppressive. The Nimla valley is, however, an oasis
in the desert. In it there is a very beautiful garden enclosed within
a high wall. It was made by Shah Jehangir about 1610 A.D.,
and has been repaired by the present Amîr. One can see the garden a
great way off, the deep green of its cypress trees being a striking
piece of colour among the blue greys and reds of the mountainous barren
landscape. There is an avenue of these trees about one hundred feet
wide, and between them, from one end of the garden to the other, rushes
a broad stream with three cascades artificially made and enclosed
within a stone embankment. The water is brought from a stream rising in
the Suffêd Koh mountains, and rushes on to join the Surkhâb, a branch
of the Kabul river.
At one end of the avenue is a pavilion surrounded by flowers. Here we
put up for the night. Soldiers were sent off to the nearest villages to
buy provisions, and our Hindustani cook, having dug a shallow hole in
the ground in which to build his wood fire, placed a couple of stones
on each side to support his pots, and sent us an excellent dinner of
soup, roast fowl, and custard pudding.
[Sidenote: The Suffêd Koh, or White Mountains.]
We started off early next morning. Leaving the Nimla valley we had a
rough road, often no more than a dry watercourse which led up over
rocky mountains and across stony plains for many miles. As we were
travelling westward, on our left hand, that is to the south, could be
seen the great range of mountains called the Suffêd Koh, on the other
side of which is the Kurram valley, now occupied by the British. This
range forms the southern boundary of the Kabul province, and extending
from the Khyber mountains had been on our left the whole way. Our
route, however, had been somewhat north-west, for we had kept fairly
close to although not on the banks of the Kabul river, but at Jelalabad
we branched off from the river south-west, and came much closer to the
Suffêd Koh.
This range, unlike the other mountains we saw, is covered with great
forests of trees. In the whole country the arboreal distribution is
peculiar. The forests are confined entirely to the main ranges of
mountains and their immediate offshoots. The more distant prolongations
are bare and rocky. I remember once in travelling from Turkestan to
Kabul, everyone stopped and stared, for there on a mountain a solitary
tree could be seen; it looked most extraordinary. In the valleys there
are poplars and willows, which have been planted by the peasants for
use afterwards as roofing beams, and there are orchards of fruit-trees,
but I never saw a forest, a wood, nor even a spinney. The species of
tree on those mountains where they are to be found, varies, of course,
according to the height you find them growing. For instance, high up,
there are the cone-bearing trees, the various kinds of pine and fir.
Then come the yew and the hazel, the walnut and the oak. Lower down--to
3,000 feet--are wild olives, acacias, and mimosas. On the terminal
ridges you find simply shrubs and herbs.
We passed Gundamuk, where in May, 1879, the “Treaty of Peace” was
signed by the reigning Amîr Yakoub and by Sir Louis Cavagnari. Four
months later, in September, Cavagnari, while British Resident in Kabul,
was assassinated with the connivance of the same Amîr. I heard the
whole plot of the assassination when I was in Kabul.
The story was this. Cavagnari had been holding Durbars, giving judgment
in cases of dispute brought to him by the natives, and had been
distributing money freely, till the Sirdars, coming to Amîr Yakoub,
said, “No longer is the Amîr King of Afghanistan, Cavagnari is King.”
Yakoub therefore took counsel with his Sirdars as to the best course
to adopt. They said, “To-morrow the Herati regiments come for their
pay--send them to Cavagnari.” It was crafty advice--they knew the
hot fiery nature of the Heratis. The following day, when the troops
appeared, unarmed, as is the custom on these occasions, Amîr Yakoub
sent word, “Go to Cavagnari--he is your King.” Off rushed the soldiers
tumultuously, knowing the Englishman had been lavish with money. The
Sikh sentry at the Residency Gate, seeing a great crowd rushing to the
Bala Hissar, challenged them. The excited shouts of the crowd being
no answer, he fired. At once their peaceable though noisy excitement
changed to anger, and they retaliated with a shower of stones. The
Residency guard were called out, some of the Afghans rushed back for
their rifles, and soon all were furiously fighting, though no one but
Yakoub and his Sirdars knew why. Messages were sent to Amîr Yakoub, and
the answer he returned was, “If God will, I am making preparations.”
The end was the massacre of the British Envoy and all with him.
[Sidenote: Commencement of Ascent to Kabul.]
About ten miles beyond Gundamuk was Surkh pul, or “The Red Bridge.”
This is an ancient brick bridge built over the river Surkâb, which runs
into the Kabul river near Jelalabad. The bridge is built high up at a
wild looking gorge between precipitous red mountains, and the river
comes roaring out into the valley. The water of the river is reddish,
or dark-brown, from the colour of the mud in suspension; however, the
Afghans said it was good water, and while we sat in the shade of a
fakir’s hut there, the servants boiled some of the water and gave us
tea. Then we crossed the bridge and rode on again. From here, almost
to the Kabul valley, the road is through a very wild and desolate
mountainous region; you gradually rise higher and higher, to nearly
8,000 feet, but just before you reach Kabul, descend some 2,000 feet,
the valley of Kabul being 6,000 feet above the sea. It is, of course,
a very great deal colder in this region than in Jelalabad; in fact,
while the harvest is being reaped in Jelalabad, the corn at Gundamuk,
only twenty-five miles further on, is but an inch or two above the
ground. It would, perhaps, be more accurate to say that the ascent
commences at Nimla. We rode some miles between two ranges of hills--the
long narrow valley being cut across by spurs from the mountains; then
climbed a very long steep ascent, with precipitous walls of rock on
either side, and descended a narrow winding gorge which appeared to
have been once the bed of a river. On either side of this gorge there
was brushwood growing, some stunted holly trees, and what looked like
twisted boxwood trees. Then we climbed the mountain, on the top of
which is the Jigdilik serai. This is 6,200 feet high, and the scenery
from the serai is the abomination of desolation--range after range of
barren mountains. It felt bitterly cold up there, after the heat we had
been through.
They found us a room over the gateway of the serai, lit a blazing wood
fire, and we stayed there till the next day. In the first Afghan war
in 1837, during the winter retreat of the British army, of the 5,000
soldiers and 11,000 camp followers who left Kabul, only 300 reached
Jigdilik, and of these only one, Dr. Brydon, reached Jelalabad, the
others were shot down by the Afghans, or died of cold and exposure.
The village of Jigdilik is not on the hill where the serai is situated,
but in the valley at the foot. Here three gorges meet. One was the
road by which the ill-fated army came in their retreat from Kabul
through the Khurd Kabul Pass. We took another road to the north-west.
We climbed up and down over steep mountains and through narrow defiles
hemmed in by bare rocks. In the valleys it was rare to see anything
but stones, rocks, and pebbles. There was one valley at Katasung where
there was a little stream with grass growing by it. This valley, a
short time ago, was very dangerous to travel through on account of the
highway robberies and murders of a tribe living near. It is safer now,
for the Amîr has killed some of them, imprisoned others, and dispersed
the rest. We camped at Sei Baba, a narrow valley of pebbles, with a
small stream trickling through it. An enterprising peasant, finding
water there, had picked all the pebbles off a narrow strip of ground,
piled them in a ring round his field, led the water by a trench to it,
and had planted some corn. He, however, was nowhere to be seen, nor was
there any house or hut there.
[Sidenote: Irrigation Terraces.]
We occasionally came across these patches among the mountains wherever
there was a trickle of water to be obtained. Sometimes they were more
extensive than this one, and, if made on the slope of the mountain, the
ground was carefully dug and built up into terraces, so that irrigation
was possible. In the middle of the Sei Baba valley was a tomb with a
low wall all round it, and a solitary tree was growing by. On the tomb
were placed two or three pairs of horns of the wild goat. This is done
as a mark of great respect. Every passer by, too, throws a stone on a
heap by the grave, and strokes his beard while he mutters a prayer.
The heap of stones, or “tsalai,” is supposed to be piled only over the
graves of holy men or martyrs; but they are heaped over any grave that
happens to be apart from others, and by the wayside. The peasants,
not knowing, assume it is the grave of a holy man. The custom is said
by some to originate by imitation from an act of Mahomed, in which
the form but not the spirit of the ceremony, has been retained; for
Mahomed, fleeing for refuge to Mecca from Medina, threw stones at the
city and cursed it. By others, these heaps of stones are supposed to
be representative of the Buddhist funeral pillars, the custom having
remained extant since the days when Buddhism was the dominant religion
of the people inhabiting this country. The latter seems the more likely
explanation.
By the side of some of these tombs a small shrine, “ziyârat,” is built.
If the tomb is that of a known holy man, the passer by, in addition
to adding a stone and saying his prayer, calls upon the name of the
saint, and tears a small piece of rag off his garment which he hangs
on the nearest bush or tree. The shred is to remind the holy man that
the wearer has prayed him to intercede on his behalf with the prophet
Mahomed. On the grave, too, is generally planted a pole with an open
hand, cut out of zinc or tin, fixed on the top. If the deceased has
fallen in battle a red rag is fixed on the pole as well. What the open
hand pointing to the sky represents I never heard.
When we arrived at Sei Baba we found that a party of peasants on the
tramp had halted there--one of their number died just as we arrived.
Seeing that we had a cavalcade of horsemen and much baggage, and there
being no village nearer than seven or eight miles, they came to us to
beg a little calico for a winding sheet. It struck me that ten yards,
the amount they asked for, was rather much for that purpose. Possibly
they thought the living men required it quite as much as the dead man.
[Sidenote: The Iron Cage.]
Next day we had a high and stony range of mountains to climb--the
Lataband Pass, nearly eight thousand feet above the sea. This part
of the journey between Lataband and Chinár, with the winding rocky
road curving high up round the spurs or plunging into narrow ravines,
always seems to me the wildest and most weird of all. The mountains
are so huge and rocky, the ravines so precipitous, and the silence
so appalling. A few years ago the Pass was dangerous not only in
itself--the road in one place runs on a ledge of rock overhanging a
seemingly bottomless precipice--but it was infested with Afghan highway
robbers. Being comparatively near the capital this was particularly
exasperating to the Amîr. Finding ordinary punishments of no avail he
determined to make an example of the next man apprehended. As we were
riding along we could see fixed on one of the highest peaks something
that looked in the distance like a flagstaff. The road winding on we
drew nearer, and saw it was not a flag, it was too globular, and it did
not move in the wind. When we got right under the peak we saw it was a
great iron cage fixed on the top of a mast. The robber had been made an
example of. There was nothing left in the cage but his bones. I never
heard of there being any more highway robbery or murder near here.
From this pass you get the first view of Kabul. In the distance it
seems a beautiful place, and after the long desolate march the sight
of it lying in the green Kabul valley is delightful. We reached the
foot of the mountains, rode some miles along a stony and barren plain
till we reached a village called Butkhak, where we camped. The next day
the cultivated part of the Kabul valley lay before us. First were the
fields surrounding Butkhak, then we crossed a small dilapidated brick
bridge over the Logar river, which runs north to join the Kabul river.
We had quite lost sight of our old friend the Kabul river since we left
Jelalabad: he was away somewhere to the north of us, cutting a path
for himself among the mountains. The Amîr has spent several thousands
of pounds--or rather lacs of rupees--in trying to make a road in the
course of the river from Kabul to Jelalabad, but it was found quite
impracticable among the mountains in the Lataband and Chinár district.
The object, of course, was to avoid the climb over the Lataband Pass. I
have never been the route through the Khurd Kabul Pass to Jigdilik, but
I have heard that the road is not very good.
After crossing the Logar bridge we mounted a range of low pebbly hills,
which run irregularly east across the valley, cutting it in two.
From the elevated ground we could see on our left a large reed grown
marsh surrounded by meadow land, which ran right up to the foot of
the mountains, forming the south boundary of the valley. We were much
nearer to the southern than to the northern limit. The mountains curved
round in front of us and we could see the gap or gorge between the
Asmai and Shere Derwaza mountains. From this the Kabul river emerged
and took its course in a north-easterly direction across the valley.
[Sidenote: The Approach to Kabul.]
On the south bank of the river near the gorge and at the foot of the
Shere Derwaza lay the city. Jutting out north-east from the Shere
Derwaza into the valley, about a mile south of the gorge, was the spur
of the Bala Hissar, and the city seemed, as it were, to be tucked into
the corner between the Shere Derwaza, its Bala Hissar spur, and the
Asmai mountain. On our right, about a mile and a half north of the
city, was the Sherpur cantonment or fortification, backed by two low
hills--the Bemaru heights.
We descended the elevated ground, from which we had a birds-eye view of
the valley, and found ourselves riding along excellent roads fringed
with poplar trees. The cultivated fields separated by irrigation
channels lay to the left of us. On the right were the pebbly hills we
had crossed lower down, continued irregularly west. On the last hill
nearest the town, “Siah Sang,” was a strong fort, built by the British
when Lord Roberts was in Kabul. It is called Fort Roberts.
We rode along the avenues of poplar and plane trees right up to the
Bala Hissar spur. In the time of the Amîr Shere Ali, on the high ground
of the spur stood the royal residence and the fort, and when Yakoub was
Amîr this was the Residency where Cavagnari lived. It is now almost
all in ruins or demolished. The gateway stands, and a part of the
old palace. This is used as a prison for women, political prisoners,
Hazaras, and others. The wall and the moat exist, and inside, some
rough barracks have been built for a few troops. The native fort on the
higher ground of the Bala Hissar seems to be in good repair. I have
never been inside. It is used as a magazine for powder.
We passed the Bala Hissar, leaving it on our left, and the road led
through a plantation of willows extending from the Bala Hissar some
distance north, skirting the east suburb of the city. The willows in
the plantation were arranged in rows about ten yards apart with a water
trench or ditch under each row of trees, and the shaded space between
was green with grass--an unusual sight in Afghanistan. The trees were
planted by Amîr Shere Ali, whose idea was to camp his soldiers here
in the summer without tents. The willow branches are used now to make
charcoal for gunpowder.
We entered the gate of the city called the Lahore Gate. It was rather
dilapidated, but looked as though it might once have been strong. There
were heavy wooden doors studded with iron, and large loopholes in the
upper brickwork of the gate which were guarded by brick hoods open
below, a species of machicoulis gallery. Possibly the loopholes were
once used for the purpose of pouring boiling water on the heads of an
attacking enemy.
[Illustration]