The Re-Occupation of Cabul—Signs of Mahomed Jan’s Occupation—Complete
Dispersion of Mahomed Jan’s Army—General Hill’s Return to the
City—Christmas in Sherpur—Universal Character of the late
_Jehad_—Necessity for reinforcing the Army of Occupation—General
Baker’s Expedition to Baba Kuch Kar—Examination of the Bala
Hissar—Demolition of Forts and Villages about Sherpur—Cabul
Revisited—A New Military Road—The Destruction of Shops by Mahomed
Jan’s Force—Despondency of the Hindus and Kizilbashes—State of the
Char Chowk Bazaar—A Picture of Desolation—The Kotwali—Wali Mahomed’s
Losses—Ill-treatment of Women.
_24th December._
Our expectations have been fully realized; the enemy which held us in
check since December 14th has disappeared, and our troops are once more
in Cabul, which shows terrible marks of Mahomed Jan’s occupation. Every
house belonging to Sirdars known to favour the British has been looted,
and in the bazaars all the shops are gutted except those of the
Mahomedans. Doors and windows broken in, walls knocked down, all
woodwork destroyed, floors dug up, and property carried off: these are
the signs of the Reign of Terror lately instituted among the Kizilbashes
and Hindus. The search for treasure was carried out in a systematic way,
and the loot now in possession of Kohistanis, Ghilzais, and other
tribesmen must be worth many lakhs. Two lakhs of treasure belonging to
Hashim Khan alone, are said to have been seized, while the Hindus
complain of being utterly ruined. We shall have to inquire further into
this when things are once more firmly settled, but at present we have
enough to do in pursuing the enemy, and arresting such local Afghans as
joined their ranks. These men now hide their arms, and appear in all the
beautiful simplicity of peaceful citizens, but the subterfuge is too
easily detected for them to escape punishment. We were not sure early
this morning that Mahomed Jan’s host had vanished, although, as the
night had passed quietly, there was every reason to believe the siege
was at an end. Our first movement was to occupy Kila Mahomed Shariff,
and Colonel Brownlow sent out a party of the 72nd Highlanders to the
fort at dawn. They found it quite deserted, and the other forts and
villages near were also without occupants. Two or three wounded men were
lying within the walls, and the bodies of some thirty Afghans were
scattered about near the loop-holes, or in the open where our bullets
had struck them down. This was on the southern face, near the 72nd and
Commissariat gateways, so that the false attack in this direction must
have cost the enemy many lives. Afghans do not, as a rule, leave their
dead behind, and doubtless there were carried away double the number
found. Scaling-ladders covered with blood were lying in the fields and
forts, and heaps of powder and some hundreds of ball-cartridges were
discovered. Unlimited ammunition must have been served out to each man,
and as an examination shows that all the powder and caps in the Bala
Hissar have been carried off, or destroyed, it is clear that every
tribesman filled his pouch with an ample supply before making the
attack. Those who have got safely away will have powder enough to last
them for two or three years, as many tons were left by us in the
magazine. But for their losses, which are calculated at 2,000 or 3,000
killed and wounded since December 10th, the army of Mahomed Jan may
consider their sojourn in Cabul during the Mohurrum a grand success,
temporary though it was. They blockaded the British army, caused it a
loss of between 300 and 400, and proclaimed a new Amir, whom they have
still with them. Young Musa Jan has been carried off by Mushk-i-Alam,
who may, if he chooses, establish the new sovereign at Ghazni, and
invite all Afghanistan to rally about him. The old _moollah_ is reported
to have fled with the lad last night, while Mahomed Jan remained in
Cabul until eight o’clock this morning. He then saw that his army had
deserted him, and he followed the example of Mushk-i-Alam, and took to
the hills. Strong parties of cavalry have been out all day in the
Chardeh Valley and round by Charasia, but beyond a few men on the
snow-covered hills no one was met with. It was difficult work pursuing,
as snow was falling steadily. The 30,000 men have dissolved, and, with
their loot, are taking mountain roads, where they are safe from pursuit.
The villages contain many men who fought against us, and hereafter we
shall visit them with our flying column. On the 11th, 12th, and 13th
every fortified enclosure our men passed was barred against them, and
the occupants fired at stragglers and turned out to harass rear-guards.
The Mahomedan population of Cabul joined Mahomed Jan almost to a man,
thinking the British rule was at an end, and now these citizens, whose
homes we spared when we came among them in the flush of success, are
hurrying away in anticipation of the reprisals we shall inflict. The
time has gone by for weak sentimentality: military law alone should now
guide Sir F. Roberts in his dealings with the people, for it has been
proved beyond question that to act humanely is merely to encourage the
Afghans in their belief that we are unequal to controlling them. Instead
of leaving an indelible mark upon Cabul, we have enriched it by our
purchases of winter supplies, and have poured lakhs of rupees into the
purses of the very men who had nothing to expect but the fate of a
conquered race.
The Hindus and Kizilbashes who relied upon us for protection may well
revile us, since we have left them to their fate; while the Mahomedans
who have looted their homes, insulted their women, and terrorized over
them for ten days, are now laughing at our inability to follow them to
their distant villages. The unlucky Hazaras, who have worked so well for
us, were hunted down, beaten, and reviled wherever they showed their
faces in the streets; and were told jeeringly to call for help upon the
British locked up in Sherpur. Our humiliation is so great that to risk a
repetition of it would be ruinous. We must show that the investment of
Sherpur can never again occur, and to do this 10,000 troops must hold
Cabul, and our line of communication with India be so permanently
established that even 100,000 tribesmen cannot break it. An immediate
declaration of policy should be made: to wait quietly for “events to
develop” may be disastrous. We must create events, not allow others to
turn the current of them in whichever direction they please. If we are
to hold Cabul—and this is now ten times more imperious even than it was
before, for to retire would be to acknowledge that we have failed in our
occupation, and dare not risk another reverse—we must hold it by our
bayonets and not by our rupees. Half-measures will only imperil our
safety: to put trust in Afghan cunning and be guided by Afghan
insincerity is only to risk the lives of our soldiers. Those soldiers
have done all that soldiers can do, and they may well look to their
commanders to make success once obtained sure and stable. We lost less
than 100 men in capturing Cabul; we have lost nearly four times that
number in fifteen days’ fighting, after we had occupied the place for
two months. There must be no longer a state of false security; for it is
not improbable that the _jehad_ will be revived before the winter is
over, and the _moollahs_ may again influence the religious fanaticism of
the people against us.
To-day General Hills, our Governor of the City, once more visited the
_kotwali_, guarded by the 5th P.I., while the sepoys were busy all day
in searching the Mahomedan quarter, and in arresting such citizens as
they could find remaining. One hundred Punjabees garrison the _kotwali_
for the night, and the Kizilbashes and Hindus are once more plucking up
courage. The Bala Hissar has been examined, and not an Afghan found in
it, and in two or three days the 9th Foot, and the 2nd and 4th Ghoorkas,
which arrived at Sherpur this morning with General Charles Gough, will
be quartered in the fortress. Butkhak is also to be re-garrisoned with
100 of the 9th and the whole of the 12th B.C., and in a short time we
shall be once more holding a strong line of communication with Peshawur.
Our most urgent want is ammunition. The reinforcements have only brought
about 200 rounds per man, and our own supply cannot be much more than
250 rounds, taking the regiments all through.
Among our political prisoners now is Yakub Khan’s mother, who was
chiefly instrumental in raising the _jehad_. She will be closely watched
for the future, and as she is a woman of great resource, it may be
advisable to deport her to India. The camp has also received with due
hospitality forty or fifty ladies, the wives and other relatives of
Sirdars among us, as guests.
_27th December._
After all the excitement of our ten days’ siege it is a great relief now
to pass beyond the walls of Sherpur, even though the roads and fields
about are ankle-deep in mud and half-melted snow. Not a shot now
disturbs our peaceful quiet, and the only unusual sound is the dull
report of a mine exploding where our engineers are busy demolishing
forts and walls which only four days ago sheltered our enemy. Our
Christmas has been of the sober, thoughtful kind. We have so lately been
released from the painful constraint of constant vigilance and hard
fighting, that our spirits could not rise very high in the scale of
festivity; and our losses have so sobered us that it would seem almost
sacrilegious to “feast and make merry” with the death of so many
comrades still fresh in our memory and with the hospitals full of
wounded men, sufferers in the actions fought since the 10th. Besides,
every one is worn out with watching, and it will be some time before
officers and men can once more take life placidly, and enjoy heartily
such little pleasures as are forthcoming. Christmas day was one of rest
for all of us, for our cavalry reconnaissances had shown that the enemy
had dispersed far out of our reach; and as the snow lay six inches deep
on the ground, there was little chance of our troopers overtaking even
such small bands as might have followed the main roads to Logar, Ghazni,
or Kohistan. On the 24th the horses had to be led back by the troopers
from Charasia, the snow having “balled” their feet and made riding
dangerous, and there was nothing to be gained by sending them out again
on a similar errand. We were not all convinced that none of Mahomed
Jan’s followers were lurking about, and strong guards were still held
ready at night, to repel any sudden attack. But the precaution might
have been neglected; for never before has an “army” 30,000 strong melted
so rapidly away. The tribesmen must have travelled quickly during the
night of the 23rd after we had beaten them from our walls, and now the
country about for miles seems deserted of its inhabitants. Such villages
as are passed have their doors barred and bolted, and not even a ghazi
turns out to throw away his life. The snow-covered hills, which now shut
us in on all sides, stand out in pure whiteness and make no sign. They
have seen the scattered thousands who held high revel in Cabul pass away
in hot haste; but the snow has blotted out their footprints, and the
trail is lost. By-and-by we shall take it up anew, and search out our
enemy in his secluded villages and forts, for a force is even now
toiling over the snow in Kohistan, and will in a few days be at Mir
Butcha’s gates. Logar also may see another column marching upon its
villages, but more distant Wardak and Ghazni are probably safe until the
spring; that is, if Mahomed Jan and his powerful friend, the _moollah_
Mushk-i-Alam, do not keep their promise of returning to Cabul at the
festival of Nauroz, March 21st. They have had such an unexpected
success, and have secured such valuable loot, that, in spite of their
losses, they may be tempted again to repeat the experiment of coming
boldly to meet our army, instead of waiting in their homes for an
attack.
The fuller we examine into the _jehad_, the more clear it becomes that
the late combination more nearly approached a general movement among all
sections than any that has yet been attempted. In the short period
during which it existed, nearly every available fighting man in
North-Eastern Afghanistan flocked to the banners consecrated by
Mushk-i-Alam; and if the success of the _jehad_ had been a little
longer-lived—say by the interception of our reinforcements—there would
have been streams of men setting in for Cabul from Turkistan, Badakshan,
and the Shutargardan district, which would have made Mahomed Jan the
leader of that “lakh of men” of which he boasted. Every chief of
importance among the wide-spread Ghilzais and the more compact
Kohistanis and Safis was up in arms, and the fighting at Jugdulluck
showed that Asmatullah Khan and his Lughmanis were at one with their
friends besieging Sherpur. Even Padshah Khan, whose virtues
short-sighted politicians have extolled, brought a contingent to Cabul,
and fought against us with desperate hatred, although he had greatly
smoothed our path during the first march from Ali Khel. With Mahomed Jan
were also Mir Butcha and several other Kohistani chiefs—Usman Khan, the
Safi leader of Tagao; Gholam Hyder Khan (Logari), and Aslam Khan,
Colonel of Artillery, both of whom fought at Charasia; and several minor
Ghilzai leaders, who had each brought their following of 500 or 1,000
men. The countenance Mahomed Jan and Mushk-i-Alam received from Yakub
Khan’s mother and wife gave them a status which they did not fail to use
to the best of their advantage; and while, perhaps, half their followers
were freebooters, intent upon looting Hindus and Kizilbashes, they made
it appear in their attempt to negotiate with Sir Frederick Roberts that
they were the patriotic leaders of a movement which had for its object
not so much the ejectment of the British army, as the revival of the
Amirship. Singularly enough, the removal of Yakub Khan was made a
pretext for their occupation of Cabul, and this in the face of their
callousness as to his fate when he was a prisoner in our camp. Yakub’s
mother, working through Mushk-i-Alam and his _moollahs_, turned the full
tide of religious enthusiasm aroused by the _jehad_ into channels which
should serve to place either her exiled son or her grandson on the
throne, and the proclamation of Musa Jan as Amir was a bold step, which
may yet give us much trouble to nullify. Musa Jan is in the hands of
Mushk-i-Alam, who may renew his _jehad_. By setting up the child in
state at Ghazni, and formulating decrees and proclamations in his name,
he may give the people a pretext for denying the existence of British
authority further than the few acres commanded by our guns about Cabul:
and taking religion again as a rallying cry, he may by Nauroz be ready
with another 30,000 men to try conclusions with us again. The late army
which besieged us does not exist, save in scattered units. The feeling
which drew it together is still alive; for fanaticism only slumbers in
this country, and has sometimes so rapid an awakening that it must be
constantly watched. The ten days’ success of Mahomed Jan will be quoted
as proving that, under more favourable conditions, it might be extended
indefinitely; and unless, by our preparations, we show that the
conditions in future, instead of being more favourable, become steadily
less and less attractive to men who may be called upon to join a new
_jehad_, the British army of occupation may be again isolated. It is to
be hoped that no false measure of economy will prevent the strength of
the force here being so raised that from 3,000 to 4,000 men will
_always_ be available for outside work, after Sherpur or whatever lines
we may occupy have been strongly garrisoned. Our reinforcements number
only 1,400 men, and Luttabund is still left without a garrison; while
100 of the 9th Foot and the whole of the 12th Bengal Cavalry have been
sent to Butkhak to hold that post. We may seem strong enough now when we
have not an enemy within twenty miles; but so we seemed equally safe
three weeks ago, when we disbelieved in the possibility of 30,000
Afghans ever collecting together. If our experience is to go for nothing
we shall revert to the old order of things, perhaps allowing the other
division to garrison Luttabund and Sei Baba; but if we are to convince
the late leaders of the jehad that a second can only be a ridiculous
failure, we shall have the whole of Generals Charles Gough and
Arbuthnot’s brigades west of Jugdulluck.[36] There may arise some
difficulty in regard to winter supplies; but if the policy, now begun,
of requisitioning the villages belonging to hostile chiefs be carried
out to its full extent, our reinforcements can live comfortably.
Besides, the Kyber transport should at once be so remodelled that it
will not be frittered away for want of due supervision, and then,
surely, supplies can be sent from Peshawur as far as Jugdulluck,
Luttabund, or even Cabul itself. If we have to face the possibility of a
second siege of Sherpur, and of another blow at our prestige by tribes
of Asiatics, we may as well face it with our eyes open and our powder
dry. This same question of powder may involve us in difficulties yet,
for we want ammunition badly; and if it has to be brought up from
Peshawur, it will take three weeks to reach here. As we are sending
flying columns out again, the troops comprising which may get rid of 100
rounds per man in a few days, the prospect does not seem so bright of
our 250 rounds each lasting very long. If Mahomed Jan had persistently
attacked our force in the manner he at last did on December 23rd, we
should now be left with about seventy rounds in each man’s pouch.
Fortunately for us, Mahomed Jan is not a military genius.
-----
Footnote 36:
The plan here suggested was afterwards carried out.
-----
I have spoken of the flying columns we are sending out. The first of
these left Sherpur this morning, bound for Baba Kuch Kar, where the
villages belonging to Mir Butcha are said to lie. This is about
twenty-four miles away on the Charikar Road, through the heart of the
Koh-Daman, and it is not improbable that our force may meet with
opposition. This is the first time we have interfered with the
Kohistanis since 1841, and they have a belief in their own powers among
their native hills, which may cause them to fight bravely in defence of
their villages. They have an unlimited supply of ammunition taken from
the Bala Hissar, and this to tribesmen is half the battle. The country
is quite unknown to us, and, with the snow lying thick on the hills, our
men are sure to suffer great hardships. General Baker’s column is made
up as follows:—
Hazara Mountain Battery (four guns);
Guides’ Cavalry (200 sabres);
67th Foot (500 men);
Guides’ Infantry (400);
2nd Ghoorkas (400);
5th Punjabees (400);
Sappers and Miners (1½ company).
The 2nd Ghoorkas were too weak to muster 400 bayonets for service, so
the 4th Ghoorkas were called upon to make up the number. The Sappers
take with them materials for demolishing forts and villages; and it is
intended to loot the place thoroughly, so 15 per cent. of the transport
animals in Sherpur accompany the column in addition to their own
complement of mules and _yaboos_. 200 rounds of ammunition per man and
five days’ rations are carried for the men. Two survey officers
accompany the column, and three parties of signallers under Captain
Straton. The signalling branch of the service has come, deservedly, to
be looked upon as playing a most important part in every operation
undertaken. The column is strong enough both to punish Mir Butcha and to
collect supplies; but there is a strong opinion in camp that before any
reprisals were begun our communications with Jugdulluck should have been
secured. We have had no news from Jugdulluck since the 20th, and we are
in doubt as to the safety of our despatches. The news of Mahomed Jan’s
flight should cause the local Ghilzais to settle down peacefully again;
and as more troops move up from Gundamak and Jellalabad, the line will
doubtless be re-opened in ten days. When General Baker returns from
Kohistan, another column is to be sent to the Logar Valley, and more
supplies collected; this time, perhaps, without the expenditure of two
or three lakhs of rupees.
A report has been spread that the Bala Hissar has been mined, and for
the present no garrison will be placed within its walls. The Engineers
are busy examining the fortress, and when they have decided as to its
safety, General Charles Gough’s brigade will be moved into it for the
winter. Gangs of Hazara coolies are employed demolishing the walls of
villages and forts about Sherpur, and also in clearing away detached
walls in the fields, the remains of old fortified enclosures. One of the
guns given by us to Wali Mahomed, when it was expected he would go to
Turkistan as Governor, has been brought in; but the two guns of
Swinley’s Battery, lost on the 14th, are still missing.
_29th December._
I have visited the city of Cabul, which is now again in our hands, and
have seen the havoc made in its bazaars by the army of Mahomed Jan and
the fanatical followers of Mushk-i-Alam. The city is considered safe
again for visitors, though officers visiting it have to go in pairs, and
carry arms. This is a precaution against any stray ghazis who may still
be in hiding within its walls. My guard was simply four Sikhs, and with
this small escort I was able to examine the place thoroughly, without
molestation. The Mussulman population still remaining is in a wholesome
state of fear, and as our search-parties go from house to house seeking
men who played us false, there is a tendency among the citizens to draw
off to obscure nooks and corners. Passing out by the head-quarters’ gate
in the western wall, I followed the muddy footpath across the fields to
Deh-i-Afghan, the walls and ditches about which yet show signs of the
late fighting, in the presence of cartridge-cases thrown away after
being fired by the Afghans. In the gardens about the suburb the trees
are cut and “blazed” where our shells exploded, but the damage really is
very slight. We had not sufficient ammunition to waste shells on these
enclosures, and two or three doses of shrapnel or common shell were
generally enough to silence the fire of the enemy in any given orchard.
Climbing up the path to Deh-i-Afghan, which stands on a low rounded hill
at the foot of the Asmai Heights, and on the left bank of the Cabul
river, I came across a few disconsolate-looking Hindus and Kizilbashes
on their way to Sherpur, to relate their woes and file their bill of
damages against “the great British Government,” which had promised to
protect them. Besides these unlucky men were strings of Hazara coolies,
staggering under their heavy loads of wood or _bhoosa_, and to
all-seeming as happy as ever in their rags and wretchedness. All the
doors and windows of the houses were barred and locked, and but few
Mussulman faces could be seen. Here and there were knots of men
discussing, with subdued looks, the late events. The gossipers were
profuse in salaams, but moved off as our little party moved onwards.
Deh-i-Afghan was shelled, on the 14th, by six guns for about an hour,
and during the siege an 8-inch howitzer occasionally pitched a shell
into the crowds which always gathered within and about it. I therefore
expected to see some great damage done to the houses. But beyond a hole
in a wall or roof, or the branches of trees cut off in the courtyards,
there was nothing to show that our shells had fallen within its walls.
Most of the houses are so strongly made, the walls being four or five
feet thick at the base, and firmly built up of stone and mud cement,
that to breach them would require a 40-pounder, and we have no guns here
of this calibre. The streets of Deh-i-Afghan were so deserted that it
was quite a relief to leave them behind, especially as the whole place
seemed to smell of the shambles—due, perhaps, to the bodies of men
killed in action being buried in shallow graves. At the foot of the
Asmai Heights, where the road turns off to the Cabul gorge, a company of
the 3rd Sikhs was halted, while Captain Nicholson, R.E., was deciding
the direction a new military road should take from Sherpur to Dehmazung.
General Hills, Governor of the City, with a number of “friendly”
Cabulis, explained to them what houses were to be pulled down, and in a
few days we shall have some 500 or 600 men busy in demolishing the
place. As yet we have not destroyed a house in Cabul, and our merciful
policy has only encouraged its turbulent ruffians to turn and harass us
at the first opportunity. Military considerations alone should be now
allowed to prevail, and any course decided upon as contributing to the
safety of Sherpur should be carried out unswervingly. We have seen how
great was the protection afforded by Deh-i-Afghan to the enemy, as
enabling them to collect beneath its walls in perfect security, in
occupying or in retiring from the Asmai hill, and this protection should
now be swept away, even if every wall and house between the foot of the
hill and the Cabul river has to be pulled down. General Macpherson’s
retirement from above the Bala Hissar on the evening of the 14th had to
be made by way of Deh-i-Afghan, and his troops were under fire the whole
time in getting from the Cabul gorge to the fields beyond, where our
troops from Sherpur were waiting to cover their retirement. Our anxiety,
so long as a man remained within the shadow of Deh-i-Afghan, was at the
time very great.
From Deh-i-Afghan across a bridge which spans the Cabul river, and
thence by a winding path among high walls and sombre-looking dwellings,
to the Chandaul quarter, is only a few minutes’ walk. The melting snow
had made the narrow, ill-paved streets almost impassable in places, and
we had to splash through mud and slush to make any progress at all. As
this end of the city was entered there were a few more signs of life,
and one or two shops were open, but few wares were displayed. All these
shops belonged to Mahomedans; they had escaped looting, and their happy
owners were now placidly returning to their every-day life, though,
perchance, during the Mohurrum they ruffled it with the best, and
swaggered about, threatening death to all Kafirs. They know our weakness
for sparing a fallen foe, and they trade upon it systematically. They
will take our rupees to-day, and be all subserviency or sullen
independence—not so much the latter now—and will cut our throats and
hack our bodies to pieces to-morrow as part of the beautiful programme
drawn up by a far-seeing Providence. Passing by these few shops tenanted
by Mahomedans, I soon came to those owned by Hindus, and here the wreck
was great. Like all Eastern bazaars, those of Cabul consist of rows of
little stalls raised three or four feet above the street level. The rear
and side walls are built of mud and sun-dried bricks, while the front is
all open, except where the rude wooden shutters are put up at nightfall,
and the little door securely padlocked. But few of the shopkeepers live
“on the premises;” they have houses in the back-streets, where their
wives and families are secluded; so that, when the day’s work or trading
is over, the bazaars are deserted, except by wanderers or strangers in
search of their night’s resting-place. These little stalls have been
gutted; nothing is left except the bare walls. Every scrap of woodwork
has been carried away, and the floors have been dug up in search of
hidden treasure. The walls in several places are broken down, and their
ruins lie across the street; while in one or two instances the very
poles of the roofs have been purloined, and the snow and mist have
wantoned through the nice snug corners where Bokhara silks, Manchester
cottons, or Sheffield cutlery lay stored away. A description of one
stall will serve for all. Scarcely a Hindu shop has been left untouched,
and Defilement has followed upon Devastation, until the twin-sisters
have made the havoc complete. The wretched shopkeepers sit among the
ruins in helpless misery, and are already debating whether it would not
be better to pack up their household goods and move for Hindustan rather
than wait for a second irruption of the hungry horde of tribesmen who
are now hurrying away to their homes laden with the loot of Cabul. These
Hindus make the most of their losses unquestionably, in the hope of
obtaining compensation from the British; yet there can be no doubt they
have been robbed of a large amount of property. The Shore Bazaar is
nearly all wrecked, and one part of the Char Chowk, the large covered-in
bazaar of Cabul, has been cleared out even to the nails in the walls.
The practice of burying articles of value is so common among Cabulis,
and indeed among Asiatics generally, that part of the strong masonry of
which the main walls of the Char Chowk are built up has been broken
down, and huge holes and gaps left to show the earnestness of the
search. Such shops as have been spared in the heart of the city are
still closed, for their owners do not care to display their goods too
soon, as they have to bear the inquisitorial questions of their less
fortunate neighbours. A more wretched picture of desolation than Cabul
presented as I rode through it cannot be imagined. All the life and
turmoil had died out of it, and the only persons who seemed to take
advantage of the general stagnation were the women, many of whom were
flitting about in their long white robes as if free from all restraint.
The _kotwali_ had been made the temporary head-quarters of Mahomed Jan,
who had garrisoned it with a few hundred resolute men. Their first act
had been to destroy and defile the room where General Hills sat as
Governor of the City; and they had done this very completely, even the
roof and floor being torn up. Loop-holes had been knocked into the walls
of every room, both above and below, as if in anticipation of a stand
being made if it came to street-fighting. The _kotwali_ is a high square
building; an open courtyard, with two tiers of rooms round it, and a
parapet above all whence the neighbouring roofs and streets can he
commanded by musketry fire. It is so closely hemmed in by buildings,
however, that it would not be a good position to defend. The entrance is
from the middle of the Char Chowk Bazaar, and it is the centre round
which all Cabul circulates when any excitement arouses the people. When
I visited it in my ramble through the city I found 100 Sikhs and
Ghoorkas garrisoning it, and ready to turn out at a moment’s notice if
an alarm of “ghazis” were raised. Speaking to a friendly Cabuli, he
assured me that lakhs of property had been looted; he himself had had
five houses cleared out, while sirdars in our camp had been treated in a
similar way. Wali Mahomed especially had been a sufferer, and the ladies
of his _zenana_ had been subjected to great indignities. Believing that
they had ornaments of value hidden upon their persons, they were
stripped of every stitch of clothing, and turned out in all the shame of
nakedness into the streets. Questioned as to the number of Mahomed Jan’s
followers, the Cabuli said there were fully 30,000 men, and this
coincided with estimates given by our spies and others who have been
examined since. Padshah Khan, the man whom we trusted so implicitly on
our march from the Shutargardan, was among the leaders, and brought a
small contingent to swell the army of fanatics. The systematic way in
which the looting was carried on will appear from the statement that,
when a man defended his house against a small band of marauders, they
retired for the time, and then returned, as a Hindu put it, “10,000
strong.” It was useless to offer opposition to such numbers, though I
believe many of the Kizilbashes, by professing to be good Mahomedans,
saved their property. There were not many inoffensive shopkeepers
killed, eight or ten at the highest estimate: but the fear and terror in
which they lived hidden away in cellars and holes made their life during
the Mohurrum scarcely worth the living. I left Cabul, feeling that it
was, indeed, a hapless city. The industrious classes, who had been our
friends and had rejoiced at our coming, had been despoiled under our
eyes; while those who had cursed us in their hearts, and longed to drive
us out, were once more cowed after a short triumph, and were calculating
how many of their number would shortly grace the gallows. The Military
Commission under the presidency of Brigadier-General Massy has again
been ordered to assemble. This time, it is to be hoped a few men of
importance may be executed—always provided that we can find them. The
members of the Commission are General Massy, Major Morgan, (of the 9th
Foot), and Major Stewart (of the 5th Punjab Cavalry).
The remains of Captain Spens were found to-day by Dr. Duke, about ten
yards from the spot where he was cut down. General Roberts, with a small
force, visited Chardeh Valley to-day, to examine the ground where the
cavalry and guns came to grief on the 11th. One mountain gun of
Swinley’s Battery, lost on the 14th, has been found. It was lying in a
_jheel_ (a shallow pool) a few miles up Chardeh Valley, where it had
been abandoned by the enemy in their flight.
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