Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎17r] (34/312)

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THE KHYBER PASS.
The map of the British and Russian frontiers in
Asia published in our impression of Friday last
will have served to make our readers familiar with
the general outlines of the country which the
startling intelligence from our Special Corre
spondent in Simla, published in oar columns of
yesterday, must necessarily invest with an ab
sorbing interest. In the observations which ac
companied that map we explained the conditions
and discussed the possibilities of an invasion of
India from the assumed starting point of Herat,
either by way of the famous Khyber Pass or by the
Bolan Pass—the route by which the army under
the command of Sir John afterwards Lord Keane
advanced into Afghanistan in the spring of 1839.
Now, however, the Afghan question has as
sumed a new aspect. The topic of interest is for
the moment no longer that of the feasibility of
a Russian advance upon Cabul or Kandahar,
but of the practical difficulties in the way of that
forcibly entry into the dominions of Shere Ali
which those who have the control of our Indian
policy may at any moment deem incnmbeat upon
us in the interests of British reputation and
influence upon the north-western borders of
Hindostan. Some more complete account there
fore of the nature of the Passes of the Suliman
mountain-range may be acceptable to our readers,
this will perhaps be best afforded by a glance
at the experiences of British commanders who
have attempted, with or without success, to con
duct an army through these passes in the face of
hostile forces. y
As we have already observed, the advance
of Sir John Keane into Afghafii^an in 1S39
was effected by the less direct r^mte of the
Bolan Pass —or rather by the sncfeession of ravines
and gorges,gradually ascending from east to wes',
which is known by that name. It was the refusal
of Runjeet Singh to fulfil his promise of preparing
the wav for an easy advance of the British army
through the Sikh country to Cabul which finally
led to the selection of Shikarpoor, in Scinde, as
the principal rendezvous of our forces, and the
determination to approach the Afghan capital by
the more circuitous way of the Bolan, Quettah,
and Kandahar—the Ameers of Scinde, more com
plaisant than the ruler of the Punjab, having
promised to provide supplies and means of con
veyance. The difficulties encountered by the
Bengal column under Sir Willoughby Cotton,
consisting of 9,600 men and the enormous number
of 80,000 camp followers, were rather of a physical
than a military kind.
The Bolan Pass is 66 miles
in length, winding, rugged, and flanked by high
rocks, its width gradually narrowing from three
miles to about 150 feet, and forage and water
being entirely wanting. When the column reached
Dadur, at the foot of the mountains, on the 6th
of March, provisions were already so short
that the camp followers were put on half
rations. Nevertheless, the troops reached
Quettah, after enduring great privations.
In the graphic words of Sir John Kaye, "when
Cotton appeared with his troops o* a clear, still
morning, at the mouth of the defile, there was
little likelihood of any obstacle being opposed to
his free progress. But the baggage-cattle were
falling dead by the wayside ; the artillery horses
were showing painful symptoms of distress. The
stream of the Bolan river was tainted by the
bodies of the camels that had sunk beneath their
loads. The Beloochee freebooters were hovering
I about, cutting off our couriers, murdering strag
glers, carrying off our baggage and our cattle.
| Among the rocks of this stupendous defile our men
I pitched their tents; and toiled on again, day by
| day, over a wretched road covered with loose flint
stones, surmounting, at first, by a scarcely per
ceptible ascent, and afterwards by a difficult
acclivity, the great Brahoo chain of hills. Tne
Bolan Pass is nearly sixty miles in length. The
passage was accomplished in six days. They were
days of drear discomfit, but not of danger. A
resolute enemy might have wrought mighty havoc
among Cotton's regiments; but the enemies with
I which now they had to contend were the sharp
! flint stones which lamed our cattle, the scanty
pasturage which destroyed them, and the maraud
ing tribes who carried them off. The way was
strewn with baggage—with abandoned tents and
stores and luxuries which,a few weeks afterwards,
would have fetched their weight twice counted in
rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. , were left to be trampled down by the
cattle in the rear, or earried off by the plunderers
about them. Happy was every man in the
force when the army again emerged into
the open country." At Ciuettah the troops
failing to find the supplies they expected, were
compelled to push forward in a famished condi
tion to Kandahar, distant 150 miles, which place
they reached on the 26th of April, having marched
1,000 miles since leaving Ferozepoor. The Bom
bay column, with Shah Shoojah's contingent,
which entered the pass on the 12th of April, en
countered still greater fatigues and privations,
and suffered moreover some harassment from the
predatory tribes which infest the ranges of hills
in that district. No serious opposition, however,