Scrapbook of newspaper cuttings about Afghanistan [‎44r] (89/312)

anything which is recorded in the history of
attempts to force a passage in the face of such
defenders as the Afghans or the hill tribes. But
if the mere entrance into the country proved to be
so simple a iask, there was certainly nothing in
the subsequent operations of the campaign which
could give any great brilliancy to our triumphant
progress. Only at Ghuzni—where Hyder Khan,
son of Dost Mahomed, was in command did
any serious fighting take place. The proclama
tion of war was issued at Simla on the Ist of
October; the force on the Bengal side, 9,500
strong, was ready to advance at the beginning of
December; Sir Willoughby Cotton and the troops
under his command entered the Bolan Pass in the
western mountains of Afghanistan on the 6to of
March, followed on the 12th of April by the
Bombay column, together with Shah Soojah's
contingent. Candahar, with its rich bazaars and
its 100,00 inhabitants, was quietly entered in the
following month; and on the 22nd of July
Ghuznee was taken by storm. In three hours from
the blowing in of the gates by bags of gun
powder the citadel was captured, but not a single
British officer was killed in the fight, seventeen
non-commissionBd officers and privates being the
total of the slain, and the entire number of
wounded being 165, including eighteen officers.
In the face of such figures as these it is idle to
pretend to class the capture of Ghuznee among the
great battles of our Indian history ; but, compara
tively insignificant as the struggle was, the result
was decisive. The renowned Dost Mahomed fled
from his capital on the receipt of the news ; nor
did he practically reappear upon the scene until
the following year when, after an unsuccessful
attempt to lead an insurrection, he rode one
November day sixty miles across the country, and
approaching our Eesident, Sir "William Mac-
naghten, as he was returning from his evening
ride to his quarters in Cabul, presented his sword
to the envoy, and sought his protection. The
weapon was returned, the protection granted, and
the ruler of Afghanistan, whose name had so
lately possessed an ominous sound in the ears of
Anglo-Indians, was sent to Mussooree as a pri
soner and a pensioner of the British Govern
ment.
After these experiences some kind of excuse
might perhaps be urged for the tendency of the
British commanders at Cabul to neglect the ordi
nary precautions incumbent upon an invading
army in the midst of a hostile people; but Gene
ral Elphinstone,whatevermay have been his views,
certainly carried contempt for his foes to the point
of something more than culpable impru
dence. That a country which by its nature
must have offered great advantages for de
fence in the hands of a resolute and united
people—a country somewhat greater in extent
than France, and infinitely less favourable
1 for aggressive military operations ; possessing,
moreover, a population estimated, though we
know not on what data, at 14 millions—should be
not only subdued but actually occupied and held
for two years by an invading force of about
10,000 combatants, was sufficiently remarkable.
But the army of General Elphinstone was actually
without any base of operations. Its natural source
of strength and support was of course our own
territory of India, but with thishis communications
were always uncertain, and at some seasons were
practically non-existent. Yet in the face of these
facts the petty insurrections of the Afghans
were seen to grow into more formidable
risings, apparently without any warning being
taken. Experience had indeed shown that
even when led by the sagacious Dost Ma
homed they were easily suppressed by our
troops; but the harassment was of that kind
which wears out even victorious troops, and long
before the close of 1841 the cooler heads of the ex
pedition clearly perceived impending troubles of the
gravest kind. A British army dropped down into
another planet could indeed have hardly been
more completely isolated than were the troops
under the command of General Elphinstono on
the approach of their second winter in the Afghan
territory. Yet the English officers and their
families in their new cantonments were making
themselves at home, and looking forward to a
permanent residence in the country. Eegard-
ing certain minor but not unimportant
causes of that " gathering of the storm" which
historians relate, some of which were unhappily
more than discreditable to the British name, we
must refer the reader to the pages of Sir John !
j Kaye. The insurrection slowly but surely ! /j \
gathered strength on all hands; but it is to be ^
observed that even tothe last the difficulty of the
Britisii position arose neither from the daring nor
military skill of the Afghans, but simply from out
own neglect to bring in sufficient provisions fo*
the winter. With the means of feeding out
troops it cannot be doubted that the forces which
i had swept the country, and subdued with
ease every attempt to rise against them v
! col dd at least have defended themselvef
| until succour and reinforcements couM
! be sent. But familiarity with Afghan resistance
had, according to the old proverb, bred contempt,
and tho experience of the commissariat during the
previous winter had engendered a false confidence^
In this deplorable position, after the successivt
murders of Sir Alexander Burnes, Sir William
Macnaghten, and other distinguished Englishmen,
a council of war was held on the 26th of December,
when a treaty was ratified with Akbar Khan, bv
| which it was agreed to leave all the guns behind
except six, to relinquish all the treasure, to give,
up four officers as hostages, and to pay 40,000
rupees Indian silver coin also widely used in the Persian Gulf. in bills drawn upon India, but nego
tiated on the spot by some Hindoo bankers.
In return for these humiliating concessions the
treacherous Akbar Khan finally undertook only
to conduct the army safely to Jellalabad, then
held by General Sale, on the Afghan side of the
Khyber Pass, and ninety miles only from Cabul.
General Elphinstone, at this time in supreme
command, is described as being in such a state of
nervous weakness from ill-health as to have been
utterly incapable of acting with the decision
necessary in such an emergency; but he probably
calculated on the willingness of the Afghans to
get rid of their troublesome guests on terms so
advantageous to themselves, and he possibly
founded some hope of good faith on the pro
bable unwillingness of the Afghan leader to pro
voke the British Government to a more skilfully
planned and more powerfully supported invasion
of the country. Such a hope, however, if it
existed, was destined soon to be destroyed. The
winter had now arrived ; the snows were deep in
the passes; a march of 200 miles lay between
Cabul and Peshawur. Akbar Khan knew well
that he had his enemy in his power, and he had
resolved on the destruction of the entire British
army, with its extensive accompaniment of camp
followers. The details of those dreadful days are
to be found in their most complete form in the
journal of Lady Sale. The whole force was
estimated at 4,500 fighting men and 12,000
followers. No course but retreat was left; for
i even to "fight for supplies" required for the
i outfit of an expedition a certain amount of pro
visions, which was now wanting. Accordingly on
the 6th of January the army left its cantonments.
On the 8th, Major Pottinger and Captains
Lawrence and Mackenzie were given over to the
Afghans as hostages for the surrender of Jellalabad
by General Sale, or, in other words, for tho com
plete evacuation of the Afghan territory; and on
that day the army entered the fatal Khoord-Cabul
Pass—a narrow defile enclosed by high and
rugged rocks, in which the portion of the army
under General Sale had three months previously
suffered considerably from their hidden foes. Tho
weather was clear and frosty ; the thermometer
l considerably below freezing point; the snow
lay a foot deep on the ground. As
the rear guard left the cantonments the first
token of their approaching fate was fur-
| nished by the Afghans firing upon them; before
! they entered the pass great confusion prevailed.
Men, women, and children dropped, and were left
to die; mutinous artillerymen, desperate with
cold and privation, seized upon the stores of
brandy and drank to excess. At this time, saya
i Lady Sale, the enemy assembled on the heights in
great numbers, and "had they made a dash at
j us all would have been massacred;" but the 44th
I Eegiment, headed by Major Thain, drove them'
off, and took up a position on a commanding
height; and, on a signal, a company of the 37th
Native Infantry beat back the enemy in gallant
style. . On this day Lady Sale received a ball iu
! her arm, and her son-in-law, Lieutenant Sturt,
was mortally wounded. The enemy, emboldened
by the famished and half-frozen oondition of the
troops, fired upon them from numberless points on
the way ; but still did not venture to meet them
on equal terms. When darkness came 500 regular