into Cabul, and therefore we think there must have been a fight below,
in which he has had the worst.
A Hindu merchant has offered to bring grain, and lay it at the gate of
Mahommed Shureef's fort in the night. We are not to speak to his people;
and are eventually to pay him at the rate of one Cabul seer for the
rupee, and we are bound to take 200 kurwars. Also on every hundred
maunds being delivered, we are to lay down a bag of 1500 rupees as a
present. He says many would assist us, but are afraid; that as he is the
first in the market, he expects to make his fortune.
_29th._--The enemy are not showing any cavalry to-day; and there is a
rumour that they have gone to meet the corps coming in from
Ghuznee--there was only infantry on the hillside; however, some
alarmists fancied that they were coming down, which they never do
without horsemen: the bugles sounded, there was a great bustle, and all
ended in nothing.
We shelled Behmaru and the hill above it; and also the two shops close
to the village, one on either side of the road, where there is a little
bridge, and the trees form an archway.
Ammunition was sent to the Bala Hissar.
The horses are hard up for grain: those for the artillery have not been
much looked after since Lieut. Waller was wounded; and one of them is
averred to have eaten his comrade's tail! That he bit it off there is no
doubt.
_30th._--Abdoolah Khan's death has, it is said, created some confusion
in the city. Whilst still living a report was spread of his decease;
and, like Alexander, he mounted his horse, and showed himself to his
followers; but the exertion was too great for him, and he shortly after
expired.
Amongst other political barometers, the manner in which persons are
spoken of indicates whether affairs are going on well or ill: just now,
things are looking up again. A few days ago people spoke of "The
Macnaghtens;" then they became again "Sir William and my Lady;" and
to-day they have left their refuge in a tent in cantonments, and are
gone into the great house again, which they think will have a good
effect, and tend to quiet people's minds.
The politicals are again very mysterious, and deny that any negotiations
are going on, &c.; but letters come in constantly; and we know they are
treating with the Ghilzyes.
A new arrangement is made with Khojeh Meer regarding grain: formerly he
received fifty rupees daily as bukshees, whether grain was procured or
not; now he is to have 500 rupees given him on delivery of every hundred
khurwars.
Sturt proposes to hut the men on the ramparts, and give them plenty of
firewood. As yet they are not allowed any fires, except for cooking
their food. He also wishes to have the city shelled, both from the Bala
Hissar and the cantonments, particularly to annoy the quarter where the
gunpowder-makers reside.
Early this morning a party of horsemen left the city in the direction of
Bhoodkhak, and another towards the Kohistan.
Treaty is certainly going on; and we think that the confederacy may be
breaking up. Humza Khan of Tezeen is said to be sending his women away
from Cabul, and many have been seen mounted on yaboos going away on the
road leading to Bhoodkhak.
_1st December._--Mohun Lull writes that the enemy will show in force
to-day, and attack us to-morrow. The firing we heard in the night was an
attack on the patrol, who got in safe.
A cossid reported yesterday that he had been with his letter to
Kelat-i-Ghilzye, but he brought no letter back. He said that the force
had left the place; and as he could not give any account of, or letters
from Ghuznee, we suspect that he never went at all.
A report to-day that the Hindu merchant had commenced his supplies of
grain is contradicted: but a small quantity was got in to-day.
We sent to get some barley for our horses; but the enemy were hovering
about the villages, and prevented us.
It is reported that the garrison at Ghuznee have blown up the bastions,
and joined General Nott's force.
More treaty going on. Firing at night, said to be an attempt to blow up
the Bala Hissar gate, which was repulsed. A good deal of firing during
the night, and also shelling into the town.
_2nd._--Last night's firing was an unsuccessful attempt of the enemy on
the Bourj above the Bala Hissar.
I counted this morning 49 horsemen on the Siah Sung Hill, who were
reported to the General at 300! We did not fire at them, as they were
seen to come from Mahmood Khan's Fort, where the Ghilzyes reside who are
now treating with us.
Mohun Lull's information was incorrect; the enemy did not show in force
yesterday, neither have they to-day made their intended attack on the
captured fort and that of the magazine. The person who succeeds in
taking the latter is promised 40,000 rupees, and the rents of the
adjacent lands.
The enemy's confederacy is said to be breaking up: they are now
quarrelling regarding the partition of power which as yet they have not.
One says he will be chief of Cabul, another of Jellalabad, &c. The plan
proposed for the capture of cantonments by the enemy is, to send 200
bildars in front to cut down the ramparts; next come the infantry, and
then the horse. I suppose we are to stand still and look on.
Mahommed Akbar Khan is said to be very ill.
There is a report that a man has come in from Gen. Nott's camp at
Urghundee, eighteen miles off; that the enemy had attacked him, placing
two guns in position, both of which we are said to have captured. We
fear this news is too good to be true. These reports are disseminated by
the enemy; and the only motive to which I can attribute them is a wish
to lull us into security by reports of aid coming to us, until
starvation prompts acquiescence in their demands, be they what they may.
A man of the Ghoorka corps has come in. He says the men are wandering up
and down the country, and that some have taken refuge in forts; that
poor Rose, in a fit of despair, put an end to his existence by shooting
himself; and that Dr. Grant, when he last saw him, was wounded in the
leg.
Ishmatoolah is said to be imprisoned in the city.
The Parsee merchant is also in prison until he pays a ransom of 10,000
rupees: his property has all been taken away.
The people of the city are said to be discontented. They have no
firewood; the people who used to bring it in are afraid to do so lest
they should be plundered.
_3rd._--The attack intended for yesterday has been postponed to to-day,
we hear; but there seems to be little likelihood of one.
Khojeh Meer says that he has no more grain: we only got 50 maunds in
to-day. He also says that the moollahs have been to all the villages,
and laid the people under ban not to assist the English, and that
consequently the Mussulman population are as one man against us. He says
he expects himself to have to run for his life to Peshawer whenever we
go away. Khojeh Meer has a difficult part, to play: his pecuniary gain
in siding with us is great; but being the father-in-law of Meer
Musjudee, who married the Khojeh's daughter, he of course lets the enemy
occupy the village whenever they please. As far as we are individually
concerned, Khojeh Meer has been very civil to us: he sells us grain
whenever we can manage to send an Affghan servant on a yaboo to purchase
it. Sturt has been kind to the man; and he evinces his gratitude by
writing to say that he will get us what supplies he can. Much more grain
might have been procured, had we not foolishly tried to drive hard
bargains with Khojeh Meer. It has been intimated to the Envoy that the
enemy's troops, who lately got one rupee daily for each horseman, and
eight anas for each foot soldier, have not had any pay for four days,
and that they are grumbling at it.
We saw a party leaving Cabul towards Bhoodkhak with two women on one
horse riding with them.
A cossid came in from Jellalabad; no letter for me. He had been detained
five days in the city, and his intelligence only reached to the 21st.
Khojeh Meer says that the villages to our rear (from whence the grain
was brought to Behmaru) are occupied; and that the only place which
could have given us grain, and where we might have obtained six months'
supply, was Khojeh Rewash, which is at present occupied by Sekundu Khan
with 500 men.
In the evening about seven o'clock there was firing on the southern
face, and towards the Magazine fort, which continued until past ten
o'clock. The enemy appear to be trying to mine that fort, and Sturt saw
about ten men close up under the walls of it.
The enemy seem to be on the alert; however there was no firing at night
of any consequence: we shelled the city from the Bala Hissar as usual.
Orders were this day issued, that the arms and accoutrements,
discipline, &c. of the various corps, should be attended to! Consequent
on this order the 5th have been very busy cleaning their musket
barrels,--a most unusual exertion. The arms used to be placed against
the rampart, and of course the barrels were rusty and the powder damp.
A committee is ordered to assemble to-morrow to value all useless horses
in the Bazaar, which are to be destroyed; so there will be plenty of
cheap meat, as tattoos and camels have for some time past been eaten:
even some of the gentlemen ate camel's flesh, particularly the heart,
which was esteemed equal to that of the bullock. I never was tempted by
these choice viands; so cannot offer an opinion regarding them.
Brig. Shelton sent to tell Sturt that one of the bastions of the
captured fort was on fire, and to request he would send bildars to dig
the place and lay on fresh earth. He went accordingly to see what was
the matter, and came back very angry, as the guard had been burning the
defences he had put up.
_4th._--Two chiefs have been treating with the King: they propose that
he throws off the Feringhees, on which they will render their allegiance
to him. His Majesty, however, thinks it unsafe to break with us. Gen.
Nott's brigade is now supposed to be at Shekoabad, about six marches
from Cabul. The enemy assembled in numbers on the heights, and planted
two guns in the gorge; from which they discharged 144 shot at us (said
to have been scored on the wall of the Mission Compound). They had three
other guns out, which were placed on the road behind a trench they had
dug, and a kind of breastwork they had thrown up across the road, near
the Shah Bagh.
In front of this they had another for their men to fire from behind it.
Another party took post in the Nullah, near the bridge going to Siah
Sung. A man mounted on a grey horse came down apparently to see if they
were properly posted: he had a _foot_ man with him. A shot was taken at
the latter, who, being beyond its range, ran a few yards backwards and
forwards, dancing, jumping, and cutting capers in derision.
Just as it was getting dark the fight commenced in earnest: the enemy
made a rush at the captured fort. They had placed a bag of powder at the
wicket, and must have been greatly astonished at finding it produced no
effect in consequence of Sturt having filled the place up.
They were received with a sharp fire, which was kept up for a long time,
both of musketry and guns. Lieut. Cumberland, of the 44th, was on duty
there with 100 men. He sent for a reinforcement, and Sturt took fifty
men to him under a very heavy fire. (Observe the wisdom of unnecessarily
risking the life of our only engineer officer.)
Notwithstanding that the enemy opened five guns on us, our loss was very
trifling: as yet I have heard only of one man, an artilleryman, killed;
and a sergeant of Sturt's (Williams) was wounded whilst digging with the
sappers. A few horses and camels were killed, as also one or two camp
followers in the Mission Compound.
Some of the cannon shot went clean over the cantonments (those fired
from the gorge): one fell between the legs of Mr. Mein's mule in Sturt's
compound, near the rear gate, without doing any damage.
To-day Sturt came home with his clothes singed, having been nearly blown
up by an explosion of powder in one of the batteries, when a man got his
pouch ignited by the port-fire; he was much hurt: at 10 o'clock the
shots were dropping quickly.
I can scarcely believe that this is the grand attempt at capturing
cantonments; and therefore am expecting another, and wish it may occur
by daylight.
The enemy's idea of blowing open a gate is excellent. They filled the
bag with powder, applied and lighted a slow match, and then threw it at
the gate! so that, when it exploded, of course it did no harm.
_5th._--The enemy assembled in small parties on the Siah Sung Hill;
also, but not in great force, on the other hills.
In the morning they attacked a foraging party sent by the cavalry, and
surrounded them in a fort. At length they took an oath on the Koran not
to hurt them; and a trooper, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the
rest, came out: he talked with them, shook hands with them, and they
seemed very friendly. They then desired the camp followers to come out;
but they distrusted them, and called to the trooper to return to them:
as he was doing so they shot him. The grasscutters had amongst them one
old musket, with which they shot two of the enemy: further operations
were suspended by the arrival of a reinforcement, when the enemy
disappeared _instanter_.
Some ottah has been said to have been dropped at the Musjed; but this
has been contradicted, and I believe no grain has been brought in
to-day.
The chief of Khojeh Rewash says that we must send a force, to make it
appear that we force it from him; and then he will sell us grain.
The proprietor of Kella Bolund offers 1000 kurwars of grain if we will
send for it, and has given the Envoy an order for its delivery; but the
difficulty lies in getting at it.
Major Kershaw has sent to announce that the enemy are coming out of the
city gate with their guns.
There has been firing all day, but I believe only a bheestee of Mr.
Eyre's killed, just behind our compound.
In the evening, about five o'clock, there was very quick firing about
the Bazar village.
The enemy have burnt the bridge, and commenced mining one of the
bastions of the captured fort.
A strong reinforcement has been sent there; and Sturt is gone down
again, at nine at night, to look to its defences.
Sturt has again to-day narrowly escaped being shot. The enemy seem to
know and to lie in wait for him, and he never shows his head above the
rampart without a ball whistling close to it. The Affghans are good
shots when they fire from their rests; and as the ammunition is the
property of each individual, they do not throw it away as we do ours.
Their gunners appear to be inferior, as they fired at the captured fort
at a distance of 300 yards, yet did not hit it.
_6th._--Sturt was out till one o'clock this morning. Between twelve and
one he crept round the fort and got into the enemy's mine: they had
worked in about eight feet. He blew up the mine, which fell in and
destroyed the covered way they had made, and shook down part of the
garden wall.
News from the Bala Hissar that the enemy are evidently thinning their
numbers; and a Ghilzye chief who has been wounded is gone home.
A cossid, who was sent by the King to Ghuznee, has returned. He says he
was stopped half way and put in kyde; that during the time he was a
prisoner another cossid arrived, sent to Amenoollah Khan from the
Kelat-i-Ghilzye chiefs with a letter. This man told him that he was the
bearer of a request for troops and guns, without which they could not
prevent the Feringhee King reaching Cabul; and that four regiments of
infantry, 100 horse, and five guns were already at Karabagh, two marches
from Ghuznee: that this occurred five days since (about the 1st). The
cossid took his oath on the Koran, before four moollahs, to the truth of
his statement; desired he might be put in prison (in which he was
accommodated); and further begged if the force did not arrive they would
put him to death! So after all this asseveration he was, of course,
implicitly believed.
At daybreak not a vestige remained of the bridge; which, however, the
General is still very anxious to rebuild, and has sent to inquire if
Sturt can do so. Without materials or workmen, and the enemy on the
spot, it is as impossible as useless to attempt it.
The General refused to have a party stationed in the small fort to
defend this same bridge, and now it is gone. He seems more bewildered
than ever, and says if the force arrives there will only be more mouths
to eat up our provisions; and we have only eight days', this inclusive;
but we have not a man to send out to forage.
The enemy were out to-day, but not in great force. They have got a
Russian seventeen-pounder of brass, which they have brought in from the
Kohistan, and have planted it in the road, near and on this side of
Mahmood Khan's fort. From this they have been firing at us all day, and
the balls fall many of them in the gardens of Messrs. Eyre and Sturt's
house. We have picked up three cannon balls close to the door of the
verandah.
Lieut. Hawtrey of the 37th N. I. was on duty at the captured fort to-day
with 100 men--forty of these were of the 44th, the rest from the 37th.
[Illustration: * room at fort]
Suppose this to be the fort: * no outlet, the window being blocked up
with mud. In this room were six of the 44th. The Affghans planted their
crooked sticks, which served them for scaling ladders; got up one by
one; pulled out the mud, and got in. A child with a stick might have
repulsed them. The Europeans had their belts and accoutrements off, and
the Sipahees the same. They all ran away as fast as they could! The 44th
say that the 37th ran first, and as they were too weak they went too.
Hawtrey says there was not a pin to choose,--all cowards alike. After he
was deserted by the men, he himself threw six hand grenades before he
followed them. One man of the 44th was an exception, and he was shot
whilst assisting Hawtrey in throwing these missiles.
Lieut. Gray, 44th, was wounded in the arm earlier in the day, by a man
who climbed up and fired through a loophole at him: he thoughtlessly
left his post to return to cantonments and get his wound dressed; and
the men endeavoured to excuse themselves by saying their own officer was
not there to direct them. It was the most shameful of all the runaways
that has occurred. The men (all agree) were not dressed when the enemy
entered. The 37th had three men left dead in the breach, and two were
wounded, which certainly looks as if they had defended themselves. We
lost 6000 rounds of ammunition in this fort.
Brig. Shelton wished that the garrison who had evacuated the fort should
retake it. For this purpose he got the men under arms as soon as they
could be collected together, and kept them, regardless of the inclemency
of the weather, with snow lying on the ground, until three or four
o'clock in the morning; when they were eventually dismissed, nothing
being attempted.
The least thing seems to-day to create alarm. The following note,
accompanied by a six-pound shot, was sent by order of Brig. Shelton to
Sturt:
"Dear Hogg--The enemy have planted a gun in a bastion of one of their
forts, near the road leading to the Kohistan gate of the city, and have
been firing it at the Magazine fort since one o'clock. Two or three
shots struck the rear face. I send you one that fell in the room above
the gateway, after passing through the wall.
"Yours, W. GRANT."
Gen. Elphinstone wrote again to the Envoy to-day, urging him to treat
for terms with the enemy.
At near 9 A.M. Sturt left us with an intention of blowing up the
captured fort, which the men seem to have taken a dislike to, and to be
determined not to defend it. He had not been gone more than a few
minutes when quick firing commenced: the enemy had come down evidently
in force along the south-eastern face of cantonments. There was a blaze
of light from Mahmood Khan's fort to our rear gate: it did not last
long, but it was a very anxious time; for our north-eastern portion of
rampart is occupied by the 5th, and I distinctly heard Bygrave using no
gentle language whilst he kicked the men up and out of their tents.
Lieut. Mein (13th) was also active in assisting to do the same, but with
very little success; though the drums beating to arms, and the hallooing
and shouting for the General and the Brigadier, were noise enough to
have aroused the dead. Lieut. Deas was on the rear gate guard; and had a
rush been made at it by the enemy, there did not seem to be any one to
oppose them.
Yesterday when Sturt was talking to the General and the Brigadier about
the captured fort, he mentioned that Capt. Layton commanded there that
day, and that he wished he should remain and retain it as a permanent
command, it being a place for which an officer should be selected, and
he considered him as well fitted for the command. Shelton, with a sneer,
asked if Layton would like to stay there? To which Sturt replied, "I do
not know what he would like, but I know that I should wish him to do
so." Capt. Layton's courage and steadiness were too unimpeachable for
the sneer to affect his character as a soldier. The Brigadier's dislike
to him arose from his not being a man of polished manners, and rather
ungrammatical in his language.
After all had gone wrong, the Brigadier told Sturt that he had told him
to order Capt. Layton to remain, and appealed to the General whether he
did not; to which Elphinstone hesitatingly replied, yes. On Sturt saying
that he never understood such an order, and that their recollections of
the conversation were different from his; that he would not give up his
own reminiscence of the business; that he (Sturt) was wide awake at the
time; the Brigadier lying on the floor rolled up in his bedding, and
either really or affectedly half asleep. On this the General hedged off
evasively by saying, he did not think what was said amounted to an
order!
Now when Sturt mentioned the circumstance to me yesterday, I asked him
whether he thought they would select an officer as a permanent
commandant, and his reply was, "God knows." Besides if it was to be, it
would have been notified in Orders, being a decided innovation on the
daily relief of the fort.
"One example is as good as a million:" these circumstances show how
affairs are carried on. The General, unsettled in his purposes,
delegates his power to the Brigadier, and the Brigadier tries to throw
off all responsibility on the General's or any body's shoulders except
his own: and the General is, as in the present instance, too
gentlemanlike to tell him that he deviates a little from the exact line,
and thus takes on himself the evasion.
Sturt came home quite disgusted; vowing that if those dear to him were
not in cantonments, they might blow them up for what he cared.
I heard a piece of private intelligence to-day,--that three of the
Envoy's Chuprassies and a Duffodar of the 4th Ressallah, with two other
persons whose names have not transpired, are in connection with the
enemy; and this treasonable correspondence has been discovered by some
intercepted letters. The men had been disposing of their property two
days previous to the discovery. The three Chuprassies are in
confinement, and the Envoy talks of asking the General for a
court-martial on them. The chances are they will escape punishment:
whereas were they hanged as traitors at once, it might be an useful
lesson to others. We have a Fakir and some Affghans in confinement also,
who are suspected of being spies.
The General peremptorily forbade the camp followers trying to take away
the piles of the bridge that remained; so the enemy, who are hard up for
wood, came down in great numbers, and did it for us. To-day we have
seven days' provisions left.
_7th._--Sturt was anxious to take the _re_captured fort; and as it
appears that the men are determined not to keep it, he proposed to blow
it up, and to call for volunteers for that purpose.
The 44th say they wish to wipe out the stain on their name, as do the
37th. Hawtrey's company volunteer to go with him, and take it without
the assistance of any other troops.
In sending the Sipahees to that fort, the sixty men were taken six from
each company, so that very few could have had their own officer,
European or native, havildars, jemadars, or even their own comrades. It
was certainly a particularly bad arrangement.