FROM LASPUR TO GASHT
That night we had beef for dinner. This may appear a trivial fact, but
it meant a great and blessed change from the eternal mutton we had been
living on, none of us having tasted beef for quite six months, except in
its condensed or tinned state, which does not count. Gilgit is a
dependency of Kashmir, whose ruling family, being Hindus, strongly
object to cow-killing, and therefore the law runs that no cows are to be
slaughtered; hence none of us since crossing the bridge at Kohalla had
tasted fresh beef. But now we were in Chitral territory, and a Mussulman
country, so we were free to kill cows, but did so unostentatiously, as
nearly all our force were Hindus. The dark deed was accomplished thus:
on the houses being searched on the arrival of the first party at
Laspur, an innocent little calf was found in one of the houses, and
quick as thought then and there despatched. I will not reveal the
murderer's name, because I do not know it. All traces were removed, and
for the next few days we enjoyed hot roast beef.
We were a merry party, but what a set of ruffians we looked! Stewart and
Gough were both suffering from snow blindness, owing to their generous
action in giving their goggles to sepoys, and passed most of their spare
time with their heads over a basin of hot water, dabbing their aching
eyes; none of us had much skin on our faces, and what little remained
was of a patchwork description; none of us had shaved for days--we
couldn't have stood the torture; and our clothes, too, were showing
signs of wear and tear. We all now slept in our clothes, partly for the
sake of warmth, and also to be in readiness in case of emergency. There
we were, sitting or lying on our bedding, which was spread on the floor
round the room, the latter divided, like all Chitrali houses, into loose
stalls by low partitions, a small fire burning in the centre of the
room, from which a thick pillar of smoke rose and hung like a cloud from
the roof, through a hole in which part of it escaped. Our swords and
revolvers were hanging on the walls or from pegs in the beams, the whole
scene dimly lit by one or two candles. It might look very picturesque,
but I always consider the best hotel is good enough for me.
As there was not space enough in the stalls for all of us, Colonel Kelly
and I, as the last comers, slept in a little room off the main one; here
was evidently the winter store of fodder for the cattle as it was half
full of bhoosa (chopped straw). This we spread evenly over the floor to
the depth of some two feet, and then laid our blankets on top. There was
just room enough for us to lie out straight, the Colonel taking one side
and I the other, and a softer or more luxurious bed could hardly be
imagined. We had to be careful, though, not to drop matches about, and
to put out our pipes before going to sleep. A halt had been ordered for
the following day, to give the men suffering from snow blindness and
frostbite a chance to recover, so we turned in with the blissful
consciousness of not having to turn out at dawn, and slept like the
dead.
The next day, April 7, was spent in hurrying forward all arrangements
for an advance on the morrow. We also sent round messengers to all the
villagers to come in and make their submission, on pain of having their
villages burned; and seeing that we now had the upper hand, at any rate
in their valley, the inhabitants came in without much hesitation, and
also brought in a certain amount of supplies; consequently by night we
had sufficient local coolies to carry all our baggage, supplies,
ammunition, and, most important of all, the two guns. About noon on this
day, Raja Akbar Khan of Punyal, whom I have before mentioned as meeting
us on the march from Shoroh to Suigal, came into camp with fifty Levies,
bringing in a convoy of ninety Balti coolies with supplies. We were
getting along famously now, so Colonel Kelly decided to advance the next
day without waiting for Peterson's detachment, as our first object was
to open communication with Mastuj.
We had a political tea that afternoon: all the leaders of the Levies,
old Raja Akbar Khan, Humayun, Taifu, the Nagar Wazir, Shah Mirza, and
one or two princelings who had come up to see some fighting, all
squatted round our little room on the straw, swigging sweet tea and
munching biscuits, quite a friendly gathering; in fact, so much tea was
consumed that the mess president swore he would send in a bill.
We always got our earliest and most reliable information from the
Levies, as most of them had blood relations among the Chitralis. They
also knew just where to look for hidden grain and supplies of all sorts.
As a rule there was generally a cache under or near the fireplace in the
main room, but I have also seen the Levies find them in the most
unlikely places, and very queer odds and ends they sometimes pulled out
of these under-ground storerooms.
On the morning of April 8th the column was formed up and ready to start
by 9 A.M. Poor Gough was being left behind at Laspur in command of the
garrison, which consisted of some twenty-five Kashmir troops, and the
Nagar and Punyal Levies, in all about a hundred. The Levies were to come
on as soon as the second party arrived. Our force, therefore, consisted
of two hundred Pioneers, two guns, forty Kashmir Sappers, and fifty
Hunza Levies. Our order of march was as follows: first of all went the
Levies; then, with an interval of some five hundred yards, came the
advance guard of a half company of Pioneers; the main body consisted of
Kashmir Sappers, guns, one company of Pioneers, ammunition, hospital
baggage, and rearguard of half company Pioneers. Both advance and
rear-guards were commanded by British officers. It was a lovely, fine
morning, and we were all in the best of spirits, and looking forward to
leaving behind the detestable snow, and therewith our chief source of
discomfort.
Poor old Gough looked awfully dismal at being left behind, but it was
the fortune of war. At Gurkuch, at Gupis, at Ghizr, there was only one
cry from officers and men--British and Native--"For Heaven's sake take
us on with you!" The natives always added that they would never be able
to face their womenfolk again if there had been fighting and they not in
it. The Britisher expressed his disgust at what he called "his bally
luck" in more forcible terms, but it meant the same thing, and we are
all the same colour under the skin.
Off we went, through the village and across the stream by a rickety
bridge, then down the left bank for about a mile, when we came to a
small hamlet,--I forget its name,--and here I fell out and paid a visit
to the house of Mahomed Rafi, the Hakim of the Laspur district. This
hoary-headed old rascal had been playing fast and loose for a long time,
but had at last cast in his lot openly with the enemy; he had a long
list of offences to answer for, and is believed to be one of the actual
murderers of Hayward about 1872.
Hayward was globe-trotting up Yasin way when these ruffians rushed his
camp, seized him, and carried him into a wood with the intention of
killing him. He asked them to defer the performance until daylight, as
he should like to look on the world once more. This they agreed to, and
soon after dawn made him kneel down and hacked off his head. Such is the
story. Poor Hayward's body was brought into Gilgit, and he lies in an
orchard close to the British Agency. I can quite imagine Hayward, or any
man who has any appreciation of the grandeur of Nature in her wilder
moods, wishing to see the sun rise once again over these tumbled masses
of snow peaks and bare cliffs. The startling sensation of the immensity
of these hills in comparison with man's minuteness strikes home with
almost the stunning effect of a sudden blow.
It is said that the calm pluck of Hayward touched even his murderers,
callous as they are to bloodshed It makes a sensational picture: a
solitary figure in the foreground standing alone on the edge of a pine
wood high up in the lonely grandeur of the everlasting hills, the first
flush of dawn reddening the snow on peak after peak, changing the pure
white to pink, the cold blue to purple, the tumbled sea of mountain
summits gradually growing in distinctness, the soft mist rising from the
valleys, and the group of wild figures standing within the shade of the
pines. Hayward takes one long look on all this loveliness, and turns
towards his executioners--men say that even they hesitated.
Mahomed Rafi, who was supposed to have actually killed Hayward, was now
Hakim of Laspur, and, as I have said, had joined the enemy.
When I had travelled through Laspur in November last, the old ruffian
had come to pay his respects, and accompanied me part of the way to
Mastuj, and while doing so, had stopped at a house to give some orders,
and had informed me that this was one of his houses. On passing it now,
I thought a visit might be useful, so, getting Shah Mirza and his
Levies, I got permission to search the house. It had evidently only
recently been occupied for on bursting in the door we found the cooking
pots in the fireplace and fresh meat hanging in one of the rooms. After
a short search we found the grain store, with several mounds of grain,
which was afterwards taken into Laspur. There was nothing much more that
we could find in our hasty search, but I picked up an empty
spectacle-case, astonished at finding it in such a place, as Mahomed
Rafi never wore spectacles in his life. I showed it to Colonel Kelly,
who promptly annexed it, as he was in want of one, having mislaid his
own. Shah Mirza also collared a fowl, which no doubt formed his next
meal.
I caught up the column before they had gone much more than a mile, just
as they were crossing a stream. After that we had some level marching
into the village of Rahman, and by this time the snow was only lying in
patches. Here we made a short halt. From Rahman there is a path across
the hills to Chitral, by means of a nullah called the Goland Gol, of
which mention will be made hereafter but at this time of year it was
impossible to use this path, owing to the snow.
During the halt, the headman of the village came up to make his salaams,
and also told me that a man of Ghizr had passed through that morning,
escaping from the enemy. He was reported to be one of Gough's
messengers, captured when taking letters to Moberly at Mastuj. I told
the headman that he had better show his goodwill by bringing in the man,
which he promised to do, and sent him in that night to our camp at
Gasht. We learned little from him, except that the enemy were going to
fight us between Gasht and Mastuj, and that the latter place was all
right. This man had no idea of numbers, and when asked the strength of
the enemy, replied invariably that there were very many men, but seemed
equally uncertain if there were five hundred or five thousand collected
in the sangar before us, and yet he had been a prisoner in their camp
for some fifteen days.
I found the best way of getting information out of the prisoners was to
set Shah Mirza or Humayun on the job. They used to squat down over the
fire with the prisoners and engage them in conversation gradually
getting what they knew out of them by simple-looking questions. Of
course I couldn't do this as I didn't know their language, and the
presence of a British officer put them on their guard at once.
Between Rahman and Mastuj the country is pretty much the same, a narrow
valley running between high, stony hills, their tops covered with snow
and their feet with boulders; then the bed of the valley more or less
rocky, and the river winding from side to side, and below the main level
of the valley, at depths varying from fifty to two hundred feet, the
sides nearly always sheer cliff; at intervals were nullahs, down which
ran streams of snow water from the hills to the river, or fans of
alluvial deposit brought down by floods in previous years. On the flank
of one such fan we found the village of Gasht, which we reached by 3.30
P.M. The Levies had already occupied the knoll at the lower end of the
village from whence the enemy had before been seen; so, after fixing on
a camping ground and giving the necessary orders, the officers all went
forward to have a look.
From the top of the knoll there was an extended view of the valley, and
I was able to point out the position of Mastuj, which was hidden by some
rising ground, and also the general direction of the road. About three
miles ahead we could distinctly see a sangar filled with men on the left
bank of the river. That sangar was, as far as we could judge, on the
right flank of the enemy's line. A few men could also be seen climbing a
steep stone shoot on the right bank of the river, so evidently the enemy
were going to try the effect of a stone avalanche as we went underneath.
A good deal of discussion went on as to whether the enemy's main defence
was on the left bank, in which case we should have to attack across the
river, or on the right bank, in which case the present visible sangar
was a flanking bastion.
At last someone suggested tea, so the meeting broke up. Colonel Kelly
and I stayed behind. I asked Colonel Kelly for permission to take some
of the Levies and have a cast forward. I took the Hunza men and my
shikaree, Faquir, as he could translate my orders to the Levies. Off we
trotted, and by the time the other officers were having tea, I was well
up the hillside. It was impossible to be rushed, as the ground was
pretty bad, so I extended my men,--when it comes to sniping, one man is
a smaller target than two,--and we skirmished up and forward, so as to
bring us well above the enemy's line. In half an hour we were high
enough to see all the valley below, and the enemy's position was spread
out like a map. I sent the Levies on about a hundred yards, and then
made them line a ridge, while I sat myself comfortably down and sketched
the whole show.
With my glasses I could count the men in each sangar. They were
evidently cooking their evening meal, as thin columns of smoke rose from
each sangar in the still evening air. I could also make out the paths
leading up the cliffs from the river, and saw men going down to fetch
water. I sat and watched long after I had got all the information I
wanted, as I might perhaps get some useful tips that I had overlooked.
It was very peaceful sitting there, but presently the sun dropped behind
the hills, and it got too chilly for comfort. A whistle to the Levies
and a wave of the hand brought them back, and we scrambled down the hill
again, and were back in camp before dark. Here I heard that the Punyal
Levies had been sent for from Laspur to come along at once.
As soon as I had explained the enemy's position to Colonel Kelly, orders
were issued for the attack next day. They were short and simple. On the
arrival of the Punyal Levies, they were to start, with a guide we had
procured, to turn out the men above the stone shoot on the right bank of
the river. I, with the Hunza Levies, was to start at 6 A.M. and work
through the hills to the right rear of the enemy's position. The main
body would start at 9 A.M. and attack in front. The baggage to remain in
camp under a guard commanded by Sergt. Reeves, Commissariat. Then we had
dinner and went to bed.