and the shot fell short. We had infantry out in skirmishing order, but
the whole was little more than a very exciting and provoking spectacle;
for we made little impression, although the whole of our cavalry was
out: so cavalry, infantry, guns, and all, came back again, and soon
after the enemy came down the hill, some evidently returning to the Shah
bagh, and others dispersing more to the left, and probably returning to
the city.
Lady Macnaghten told me to-day that Sir William had written to inform
Sale that we had been in siege since the 2d, and to request his return
with the force under his command; to leave the sick and wounded in
safety at Gundamuk, under charge of the troops there. To this the
General assented, and signed the letter; but afterwards he said it would
be abandoning the sick and baggage, and refused to recall Sale's brigade.
I was asked if I could send a letter from Sir William to Sale, through
Sturt's influence with the natives; but if, with secret service money at
his command, the Envoy cannot bribe a messenger, how are poor people
like us to do so?
Sir William has given one of the Kuzzilbash chiefs 50,000 rupees to
raise a diversion in our favour, and has promised him two lakhs more if
he succeeds.
The insurgent chiefs have set up a king, and a wuzeer; they went to the
mosque, and read the fatcha, or prayer, for the reigning monarch.
Several of the Moollahs refused to recognise the name of Shah Zeman:
they said they would allow that of Shah Shoojah as a legitimate monarch.
There was a long and wordy dispute; but Shah Mahommed Zeman seems at
present to possess most power in Cabul. This is not the blind Shah
Zeman, Shah Shoojah's brother, but a relation of the Ameer Dost
Mahommed. He is an old man, and said to be the son of an elder brother
of Dost Mahommed's, and used to be called the Nawaub. He has struck coin
in his own name.
Abdoollah Khan has sent a messenger to treat with the King, who replied
that he would receive no such low person, and that some person of
respectability must be sent. The King is also said to have seized the
man who stabbed Sturt, and to have declared his intent to put him to
death; but just now I believe he dares not do so.
This day there was a report that Sir Alexander Burnes and his brother
were still living, but that the people, in whose power they were, were
treating for a very large ransom.
Capt. Warburton left two guns in the city at his house; the Affghans
have taken possession of them (six-pounders), and use them against us
either with their own balls, or ours returned to us in that manner. They
hammer our nine-pound shot into an egg shape. One of them that fell in
Sturt's compound attracted attention, as we all supposed that they could
not be hammered to fit other guns.
Paton and Bellew meet in council with Sturt at nine most evenings at our
house. To-day arrangements were made for carrying the Shah's garden and
the Commissariat fort at daybreak, every thing being so clearly
explained that even I understood it as well as hemming the handkerchief
I was making. The captured fort, as it is called, is now held by three
companies. It is proposed to be blown up: they are quietly to cut
embrasures in the wall for three guns, to cover the attack on the
garden. There is to be a simultaneous attack on the Commissariat fort;
and the signal for escalading the breach with a company of Europeans,
and one of natives, will be the explosion in blowing up the gate. Plans
were sketched, and all the minutiæ written out, so that the General
might have no questions to ask. It is now midnight, and no reply has
been sent from him, though an answer was to have come to say whether the
work should be done or not.
This day Gen. Elphinstone wrote to the Envoy to state that we were in
want of ammunition, requesting him to endeavour to make arrangements
with the enemy!
Capt. Bellew told me that the General has at length agreed that Sale's
brigade shall be recalled. Had we more men, a brigade might be sent out
on the hill, to punish the enemy who defy us there.
The men are greatly harassed; their duty is very heavy, and they have no
cover night or day, all being on the ramparts. The weather is cold,
particularly at night.
There was a good store of grain in the captured fort, but very little of
it was brought into cantonments by the Commissariat, though a great deal
found its way into the Bunneahs' shops, or was carried off by the
Sipahees and camp-followers.
A great quantity of wheat has been brought in to-day and yesterday from
the villages, and we are promised further supplies.
A note from Thain mentions that Sale has been sent for, but, from the
very cautious wording of the order, it appears doubtful whether he can
take such responsibility upon himself as it implies. He is, if he can
leave his sick, wounded, and baggage in perfect safety, to return to
Cabul, if he can do so without endangering the force under his command.
Now, in obeying an order of this kind, if Sale succeeds, and all is
right, he will doubtless be a very fine fellow; but if he meets with a
reverse, he will be told, "You were not to come up unless you could do
so safely!"
There has been much talk of bringing Brig. Shelton from the Bala Hissar
into cantonments, to aid with counsel and prowess; the plan is, however,
for the present abandoned.
The troops in the Bala Hissar are better off than we are, as there are
yet some supplies in the shops there, though at an exorbitant rate.
Despatches have been sent for reinforcements from Kandahar. If Gen.
Nott's brigade had not proceeded on their way to the provinces further
than the Kojuk pass, they are to return.
Accounts have been received that Codrington's corps at Charikar is
surrounded. Capt. Rattray, the political agent there, and Lieut.
Salisbury, killed. Capt. Codrington and the other officers wounded, as
also Major Pottinger, political agent.
There has been great talk of withdrawing the troops from the Bala Hissar
into cantonments; but if this were done, the King, with his 800 ladies
(wives, daughters, &c., and their attendants), would follow, and we
should soon be starved out. If we make an inglorious retreat to
Hindostan, he will still accompany us; and as we brought him to the
country, we must stand by him.
When there was first an intention of building for the army at the
Company's expense, Capt. Sturt gave it as his decided opinion, (which
opinion is on record in the letter book of his office, in a letter to
Sir A. Burnes,) that the garrison should be placed in the Upper Bala
Hissar, from whence (with plenty of ammunition and food, which might
always be procured from the city, either purchased from friends, or
taken zubberdust from the enemy) we never could be dislodged. A large
outlay (I write from memory, and therefore do not name a sum) was
expended in commencing barracks, bombproofs, &c.; and last, not least, a
new wing was added to a palace for the Envoy, and another, to make all
square, was laid out, when the King sent to say he would neither have
the Envoy nor the troops in the Bala Hissar: so all the money spent was
thrown away, and the King had the new wing and the whole palace thrown
down because it was originally erected by the Dost.
The camp was pitched at Siah Sung; but that site would not answer for a
cantonment for many reasons detailed by Sturt in his public letter,
which I propose appending to my Journal.[4] I shall therefore only
notice two of them,--the distance from good water, and the whole spot
being commanded by the heights that surround it, except on one side,
which is a morass, and from that cause not particularly healthy at some
seasons.
There was ground on the further side of the city, but that would not
answer, as should an insurrection occur in Cabul it would cut off our
communication with Jellalabad.
Eventually the King gave up a garden or orchard, the present site of
cantonments, with water at hand, good and plentiful, and always
procurable by digging two feet for it in any direction.
Sturt urges the absolute necessity of our now withdrawing our forces
from the cantonments into the Bala Hissar, but is still met by the cry
of, "How can we abandon the good buildings and property?"
The ammunition might be buried and concealed, the guns spiked, &c.; but
a great deal of the former might be sent into the Bala Hissar by the
cavalry carrying each man a proportion on his horse nightly, and many of
the latter might be taken to the citadel.
To Sergt. Deane, of the engineers' department, the army are very greatly
indebted for his great personal exertions in getting in grain. He is a
particularly intelligent man, and very superior to his present station
in life; and the fluency with which he speaks Persian enables him to
pick up information, and also to go about at times in disguise for the
same purpose.
If we can only continue to obtain provisions as we have done for the
last two days, we shall be able to hold out on half rations, and in
another month, it is said, the Kohistanees cannot touch us for the snow,
which fell heavily on the hills last night.
We had rain here late in the evening, and at night; and this morning I
saw a great increase in the snow on the hills.
In the Bala Hissar, Lieut. Melville having recovered from his wound
sufficiently to do his duty, was sent down to take charge of the Lahore
gate of the fort, which was now the only opening into the Bala Hissar,
the others having been built up with almost solid masonry.
The troops there were isolated in a fort closely besieged, actually
without a single case of amputating or other surgical instruments
amongst them, and hardly a grain of medicine!--most culpable negligence,
as they might easily have been sent from the cantonments, though a
little foresight would have suggested their being taken there with the
troops; and they might easily have been got ready during the time they
were under arms--more than an hour--before they marched.
There has been constant firing for the last day or two on the city side
of the fort, and the enemy have made several unsuccessful attempts to
carry off the two guns that are lying beneath the walls. Food is already
scarce in the bazaar; and although plenty is stored up in the private
houses of the natives, yet in the shops the price of two seers of wheat
or two and a half is a rupee.
The Sipahees complain bitterly of the severity of the weather,
particularly at night, and above sixty men are in hospital at the Bala
Hissar already, besides the wounded: they are attacked with pneumonia,
which carries them off in the course of a couple of days. The King sent
strict orders to Melville at the gate, to allow no one to pass either in
or out without a pass from either the wuzeer or Conolly, except the
surwans in charge of the grazing cattle which go out at 8 A.M. and
return at 2, protected by a resallah of the King's Sikh regt.: in case
of an alarm from without, a flag is ordered to be waved from the
ramparts, on which signal all the cattle are immediately to come in. The
above-mentioned resallah are, without any exception, the worst set-up
and most disorderly body of troops calling themselves a regiment that
can be imagined: their horses are ill-conditioned, their arms and
accoutrements nominal, as each man dresses as he pleases, a stick with a
bayonet on the top being the sole offensive weapon of many of them. And
this is the imperial guard of the monarch of Affghanistan! Besides this
regiment his majesty has with him in the fort, of his own troops (not
reckoning those of the subsidiarised force), his orderly regiment
(Campbell's), 400 Juzailchees, and 500 of another Hindostanee regt. The
orderly regiment are certainly better men of the sort (not being the
Company's soldiers) than are usually met with, although they did run
away in the city on the 2nd, but it was not until they had lost 200 men
and fought gallantly. Campbell himself is the King's right-hand man.
Associated with Melville at the gate was Raja Jeenial Sing, a man whose
father was prince of an extensive territory lying near Cashmere, and
who, when Shah Shoojah in 1818 was a fugitive and an exile flying from
Runjeet Sing, received him most kindly, gave him all he asked for:
refusing every offer or command of Runjeet to surrender him up, he
transported him safely to the Company's territories. For this, Runjeet
deprived him of his Raj, valued at four lakhs yearly, and all his
property, imprisoning both him and his sons: the latter on their
father's death made their escape and arrived at the court of Shah
Shoojah, for whose sake they had lost every thing. His gratitude was
shown in the regal donation of two rupees eight anas daily!! Verily they
had their reward, and well may they exclaim, "Put not your trust in
princes!"
From an idea of an insurrection being about to take place among the
Arabs (who compose a large portion of the inhabitants), a proposal was
set on foot for turning all the Affghans, &c. out of the Bala Hissar,
and taking all provisions found for the use of the troops both there and
in cantonments. This, as well as every other energetic measure proposed,
was knocked on the head either by the King or the politicals, and,
instead of turning out all useless hands, an order was issued to allow
no woman to pass the gate unless supplied with a pass, as an idea had
got afloat that they were about to turn out their wives and children ere
a general massacre of the troops took place. However, in lieu of an
insurrection, food becoming very scarce, all the natives became
clamorous for permission to leave the fort, and go into the city with
their wives and children,--"a consummation devoutly to be wished," and
to insure which it had been good policy to have paid them a high price
for their houses and grain, &c. This the King positively refused to
allow, but ordered a Shah-Gazee to join Melville at the gate, and,
having examined them one by one to see that they carried out no arms, to
allow females to pass; but no man to go on any account. In this way, in
three days were passed out 750 women with their children, which was at
least a good riddance!
_7th._--I did not go to bed till after Mr. Eyre went away this morning:
he came at a little after midnight in consequence of some frivolous
objections of the General's, based I believe mostly on Capt. Bellew's
doubts as to whether the trees in the garden next the Commissariat fort
were planted in lines parallel to the wall or not. Now Bellew always has
an "observation" to throw in, or "begs to suggest" something. He had
acknowledged he had never been in this garden, though Sturt had; neither
could he be made to understand that it was the custom of the country to
plant the trees in lines parallel with the outer walls: neither could he
comprehend, that if even a tree intervened, a shot would destroy it from
the heavy nine-pounders. These trees were not gigantic English oaks, the
growth of a century; but fruit trees.
The heavy iron nines would now have proved their utility against the
fort, but the old objection of the difficulty of transporting them over
bad roads still exists; an iron nine cannot be as portable as a brass
six-pounder, but the eighteen-pounders would not have given much more
trouble than the nines did on the march up, and would have done us good
service had we them here. Capt. Abbott wrote for 3 eighteen-pounders;
the military board made it a case of arithmetic, and sent 6 nines; and
as they had to be taken up the hills by hand, a little more manual
labour would have transported the others also over the Affghanee
mountains.
I often hear the Affghans designated as cowards: they are a fine
manly-looking set, and I can only suppose it arises from the British
idea among civilised people that assassination is a cowardly act. The
Affghans never scruple to use their long knives for that purpose, _ergo_
they are cowards; but they show no cowardice in standing as they do
against guns without using any themselves, and in escalading and taking
forts which we cannot retake. The Affghans of the capital are a little
more civilised; but the country gentlemen and their retainers are, I
fancy, much the same kind of people as those Alexander encountered.
The Juzailchees were sent out to skirmish: they attacked the Shah bagh,
and cleared the west end of it; they then joined Major Thain, who, with
a squadron of horse and two companies of infantry, attacked a garden
beyond it, drove the enemy out with great slaughter, and burnt the
garden house. Lieut. Eyre at the same time, through a small opening in
the wall of the Shah bagh immediately under the captured fort, played
with a six-pounder upon the gate of the garden. Not being supported,
however, these advantages were lost, and the enemy being reinforced in
great numbers, the above troops were forced to retreat, having lost a
considerable number of men; _par exemple_, fifteen of the Juzailchees
out of ninety-five were left on the field. I have not the actual numbers
of the Europeans and Sipahees who were slain.
The gun was saved with great difficulty, and here a great fault was
committed in sending one gun only. In the Marquis of Hastings's time an
order was published prohibiting a single gun being sent out, in
consequence of the disastrous consequences attending its being
unsupported during the Nepalese war. But all seems confusion here. Those
who, at the head of affairs, ought to have been directing every thing,
appear to be in consternation. General Elphinstone from his first
arrival in the country was in ill health, which gradually increased on
him, till his mind became nearly as much enervated as his body; and so
conscious was he of his own state, that he had written to Government to
give up the command, and also to Gen. Nott at Kandahar to come up and
take his place until a new commander of the forces was appointed.
We are now in circumstances which require a man of energy to cope with
them. Major Thain is said to be a good adviser, but unfortunately it is
not always in the multitude of counsellors that there is wisdom; and so
many proffered their advice and crossed his, that Thain withdrew his,
and only now answers such questions as are put to him.
_8th._--At four in the morning a sharp firing was heard, for which at
the time we could not account, but afterwards found that it proceeded
from the captured fort, which the enemy had attempted to mine and
recapture. They had succeeded in making a large hole, but being repulsed
they set the fort on fire. At daybreak, finding Sturt's servant still in
the verandah, and knowing that his master was to have been up at
half-past four, I went to the door to inquire, and found that the
General, or rather his advisers, had decided that nothing was to be done.
The enemy are using our guns against us, throwing shot into cantonments
from Mahmood Khan's fort.
Our men are so overworked that it is intended to give them rest to-day.
Sturt went out early this morning, and found the garden next the
Commissariat fort unoccupied; he immediately took the sappers under
Lieut. Laing with fifty of the Juzailchees under Mackenzie to cover
them, and sent for two companies of Sipahees as a covering party whilst
they pulled down the wall, which was quickly accomplished.
There is a report that we are to be attacked in cantonments to-night.
Sturt went to Gen. Elphinstone and Brig. Anquetil, who both gave him
_carte blanche_, and desired that all his instructions should be obeyed.
He has accordingly placed 15 guns in position. We have only two
artillery officers in cantonments that are available, now Waller is
wounded; they are Eyre and Warburton. We have no laboratory men,--no
other engineer officer than Sturt, who, weak as he is, has to do every
thing.
When we came into cantonments last November, Sir Willoughby Cotton
commanded the forces in Affghanistan; and Sale, as the second here, and
commandant in cantonments, had the troops paraded and their posts
assigned, in case of any sudden attack. These troops (the 1st brigade),
who knew their posts, are now far from us, and no arrangement of a
similar kind has been made since their departure; so Sturt has had the
officers told off to their several stations, has paraded them at them,
and goes his rounds before he goes to bed to see that they are all at
their posts.
It is said that Mohun Lull has named the man who killed poor Sir
Alexander Bumes; he also writes that there are only 500 Kohistanees in
the city, and that otherwise all is going on well in the Kuzzilbash
quarter of the city, where he resides.
It was reported to-day that the city was on fire, but it proved to be a
village fired by the Kohistanees.
Conolly writes from the Bala Hissar, accounting for the firing we heard
this morning. An attack was made on the Bala Hissar, which was repulsed:
the enemy were seized with a panic, fancied they were attacked from the
rear, and began to fight amongst themselves; cries of _Aman_ were heard
in cantonments by several persons besides myself. Conolly also writes
that he has not only heard that we are to be attacked to-night, but that
the enemy are making up bhoosa bags with which to fill up the ditch.
Sturt is gone to lie down to recruit his strength, knowing that I never
dose now till daylight, but sit up to watch passing events, and give the
alarm if need be, and have kept my nightly watch ever since the
insurrection commenced. Our troops as yet are staunch; and if we are
attacked, and succeed in repelling the enemy, we shall be able to keep
our own until Sale's brigade arrives.
The enemy showed to-day on the heights, in force about 3000; but we
cannot cope with them, so content ourselves by throwing shrapnell at
them. Eyre threw some with great precision; the distance was, however,
very great, and we consequently did little execution. We also greatly
feel the want of laboratory men to cut fuzees, &c.
Sturt asked for a party to occupy the village of Behmaru, but it was not
given. The Envoy was anxious to secure this place, but all was in vain;
and as we neglected our advantages, the enemy availed themselves of
them, and Meer Musjudee threw himself and 1000 followers into it. We
have thereby lost 900 maunds of ottah, which was paid for.
Two forts near the village are in our possession.
An attack expected at about 3 o'clock this afternoon.
Brig. Shelton came in from the Bala Hissar with six companies of the
Shah's 6th, one horse artillery gun, and one of the mountain train.
The people in cantonments expect wonders from his prowess and military
judgment. I am of a different opinion, knowing that he is not a
favourite with either his officers or men, and is most anxious to get
back to Hindostan. I must, however, do him the justice to say that I
believe he possesses much personal bravery; but, notwithstanding, I
consider his arrival as a dark cloud overshadowing us. Most glad shall I
be to find that, by his energy, the General is roused up to active
measures. It is, perhaps, a part of his complaint (but, nevertheless,
equally unfortunate for us), that Gen. Elphinstone vacillates on every
point. His own judgment appears to be good, but he is swayed by the last
speaker; and Capt. Grant's cold cautiousness, and Capt. Bellew's doubts
on every subject, induce our chief to alter his opinions and plans every
moment.
At the Bala Hissar they began to be much cramped in their correspondence
with cantonments, which became very limited; a hurkaru stealing out at
night, and returning with an answer early in the morning, being now the
only means of communication; and the same man never went for more than
five days without being either killed or confined.
The Affghans, having persons who can read English, French, and Latin,
were aware of all our secrets.
Mohun Lull and the Naïb Shureef were our newsgivers from the city, and
always gave intelligence of the arrival of any new chief or body of
troops; also doing, or saying they were doing, all in their power to
enter into some sort of terms. The King is gradually getting worse and
worse, and has quite lost all his self-possession. He has warned the
females of his zenana (amounting in number to 860) that in the event of
the cantonments falling into the hands of the rebels he should
administer poison to them all! At least these are the reports gathered
from his few immediate attendants; how far they may be relied on as
true, or whether they are merely set afloat to blind us to his own share
in the insurrection, it is difficult to say.