101 



AFGHANISTAN. 



AFGHANISTAN. 



102 



reached Firozepoor, Sir H. Fane resigned the command from ill-health, 

 and Lord Auckland appointed Sir John Keane to the direction of the 

 whole army of advance, Sir Willoughby Cotton, as senior officer, 

 succeeding to the command of the Bengal division till its junction 

 with that of Bombay. Runjeet Singh and the Sikhs having failed to 

 afford the promised assistance, Sir Willoughby Cotton and the Bengal 

 army, with 80,000 camp-followers, on the 20th of February, 1839, 

 began to cross the broad desert towards the Bolan Pass, and reached 

 Dadur, at the foot of the western mountains of Afghanistan, and close 

 to the Bolan Pass, on the 1 Oth of March, when provisions were already 

 so short that the camp-followers were put on half-rations. The pass 

 is 60 miles long, winding, rugged, and flanked by high rocks. The 

 surrounding country is inhabited by the wild Beloochee tribes, who 

 live almost entirely by plunder. Fortunately little opposition was 

 offered to the troops, and on the 26th of March they reached Quettah 

 in the fertile plain of Shawl, after losing a vast number of horses and 

 camels owing to the extreme ruggedness and difficulty of the pass. 

 At Quettah they expected to find supplies, but there were none ; and 

 after some useless negotiations with Mehrab Khan of Rhelat, to whom 

 the place belonged, the army was compelled to push forward, in a 

 state approaching to famine, to Candahar, distant 150 miles, which 

 they reached on the 25th of April, having marched 1000 miles since 

 they It-ft Firozepoor. 



On the 12th of April the Bombay column, after having endured 

 terrible fatigues and privations, entered the Bolan Pass, and joined the 

 Bengal division mi the 4th of May. The united army then amounted 

 to 10,400 fighting men. The camp-followers had been greatly reduced, 

 but still amounted to 29,000. 



C.uidahar contained nearly 100,000 inhabitants. The Sirdars fled 

 with their families, and the population seemed to give a warm welcome 

 ih 8oojah. U.i the 1st of July the whole army had quitted 

 Candahar, and wag in march for Ghuznee, 230 milvs distant, the 

 soldier* being on half-rations and the camp-followers on quarter- 

 rations. On the 21st of July the army encamped under the walls of 

 Ohnznee, which was found to be much more strongly fortified than 

 Sir John Keane had expected. All the gates had been walled up 

 except that opening upon the Cabul road, and it wan resolved, as the 

 only means which offered any prospect of success, to blow down this 

 gateway with powder-bag*, and attempt to take the town by assault. 

 On the night of the 22nd of July the gate was blown open by 300 

 pounds of powder in twelve bags : the storming-party immediately 

 rushed in, and, after a desperate fight with the Afghans, carried the 

 town, and by five o'clock in the morning, the citadel was also taken, 

 and the British colours waved from ite battlements. Hyder Khan, 

 the governor, one of the sons of Dost Mahomed, surrendered in the 

 course of the morning, and was placed under the care of Sir Alexander 

 Barnes, who had been knighted previous to the advance of the army. 



On the 30th of July Sir John Keane marched with the main army 

 from Ghuznee to Cabul ; and Mahomed Akbar Khan, Dost Mahomed's 

 second son, who held Jellalabad, having been hastily recalled to assist 

 in the defence of Cabul, Jellalabad was taken possession of by Colonel 

 Wade, who attacked Akbar Khan HO vigorously in his retreat that he 

 was compelled to abandon all his artillery, camp equipage, horses, 

 bullocks, and 7000 rounds of ball-cartridge, which fell into the hands 

 of the British. 



A.s Sir John Keane drew near Cabul, Dost Mahomed abandoned 

 his throne and capital, and fled with 600 horsemen to seek a refuge 

 beyond the Oxua. At the same time the death of Runjeet Singh was 

 announced. Sir John Keane and Shah Soojah encamped under the 

 walls of Cabul on the evening of the 6th of August, and on the 

 following day the Shah, accompanied by the British officers, mvle his 

 triumphal entry into his former capital ; but there was no display of 

 enthusiasm on the part of the natives, whose behaviour was orderly 

 and respectful, but cold and cheerless. 



The conquest was now considered to be complete. The Bombay 

 column quitted Cabul on the 18th of September, the Bengal division 

 on the 20th of October ; and, leaving 8000 men, British and sepoys, 

 besides the Shah's contingent, to secure him on his throne, the British 

 army returned to India. Sir John Keane returned to England, and 

 was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Keane of Ghuznee and 

 Cappoqnin, with a pension of 20001. a year. 



.Mr. SlacNaghten, having been created Sir William MacNaghten, was 

 left at Cabul as envoy, and Sir Alexander Burnea as assistant to the 

 envoy. In the spring of 1840 insurrections and attacks upon the 

 h outports began to break out, which, as summer advanced, 

 assumed a bolder character, and were not kept down without a good 

 deal of severe fighting. Dost Mahomed having escaped from Bokhara, 

 where he was kept in confinement by the Khan of that place, now 

 showed himself at the head of a considerable Oosbeg force in the 

 Jim-loo -Coosli ; but on the 18th of September he sustained a severe 

 defeat at Kiimurd, near Kameeau. After this defeat the Oosbegs 

 abandoned Dost Mahomed, who reappeared in Kohistan, where he was 

 I by the chiefs, now thoroughly disaffected by the tax-gathering 

 system, so regularly carried out by Shah Soojah under the protection 

 of HriU-'li [ ow.-r. On the 2nd of November he fought the battle of 

 Purwandurrah, in which he covered himself with glory by defeating, 

 at the head of a small band of Afghan horse, the British cavalry, and 

 driving them under shelter of the British gnui. Too wise, however, 



to be puffed up with his partial victory, he rightly judged that the 

 hour had arrived when he might with dignity throw himself upon the 

 protection of his enemies. Accordingly on the 3rd of November, 

 when Sir William MacNaghten was returning from his evening ride in 

 Cabul. Dost Mahomed rode up to him, alighted from his horse, and, 

 presenting his sword to the envoy, sought his protection. His sword 

 was returned, and protection promised. He had ridden 60 miles from 

 the field of the battle of Purwandurrah. On the 12th of November 

 he was sent to India under a strong escort. Mussooree, on the British 

 north-west frontier, was assigned to him as a place of residence, and 

 three lacs of rupees, or about 30,000?., were allotted to Tiim as a 

 revenue. 



The insurrections continued. At the end of 1840 the British had 

 16,000 men in Afghanistan ; in November, 1841, they had 14,000, 

 besides the Shah's contingent. In May, 1841, Major Pottinger warned 

 Sir William MacNaghten of the dangerous situation of the British, of 

 the insufficiency of the military force in some places, and the badness 

 of the cantonments in nearly all. He was disregarded both by 

 MacNaghten and Burnes. By the end of September the neighbourhood 

 of Cabul swarmed with predatory bands, and during the month of 

 October the British officers were treated with insolence and insult in 

 their cantonments at Cabul. On the 2nd of November, 1841, Sir 

 William MacNaghten was in the cantonments, and Sir Alexander 

 Burnes in his house in the city, when, about nine in the morning, 

 Burnes's house was set on fire, and himself, his brother, Lieut. Burnes, 

 Lieut Broadfoot, and every man, woman, and child on the premises 

 murdered. The British officers in the cantonments seemed to be 

 stupified, and did nothing. Major-General Elphinstone at this time 

 held the chief command of the army, but was in such a state of nervous 

 weakness from ill-health as to be utterly incapable of acting with the 

 necessary decision and energy in such an emergency. The insurrec- 

 tions continued to increase ; the British officers became more confused 

 and indecisive ; Sir William MacNaghten was murdered on the 23rd 

 of December, by Akber Khan, who had invited him to a conference ; 

 and by a council of war held on the 26th of December, a treaty was 

 ratified, by which it was agreed to leave behind all the guns except 

 six, to relinquish all the treasure, to give up four officers as hostages, 

 and to pay 40,000 rupees, in bills drawn upon India, but negotiated 

 on the spot by some Hindoo bankers, for which the whole army was 

 to be escorted to Peshawur ; but ultimately Akber Khan undertook 

 to conduct it in safety to Jellalabad. 



On the 6th of January, 1842, the bills having been drawn and 

 hostages given up, the army left its cantonments at Cabul, and began 

 its retreat, one of the most disastrous to the British army that has 

 ever been recorded. The whole force was estimated at about 4500 

 fighting men and about 12,000 men of camp-followers, besides a great 

 number of women and children. 



The work of massacre began immediately ; on the 8th of January, 

 Major Pottinger and Captains Lawrence and Mackenzie were given 

 over to Akber Khan, as hostages for the evacuation of Jellalabad by 

 General Sale ; and the army entered the Khoord Cabul Pass, 5 miles 

 long, shut in on either hand by a line of lofty hills, with a torrent 

 dashing down the centre, whose course the frost in vain attempted to 

 arrest. The destruction of life in this pass was very great. Lady 

 Sale received a ball in her arm, and Lieut. Sturt, her son-in-law, was 

 mortally wounded. On the 9th the married officers, with their wives 

 and children, and two other wounded officers, were given up to Akber 

 Khan. On the 10th the army made its way through the Tunghee 

 Tarekee, or Dark Pass, only 50 yards long, and the Tezeen Pass, 3 miles 

 long, with great loss. On the llth General Elphinstone, with two other 

 officers, fell into the hands of Akber Khan. On the 12th the army 

 reached Jugdulluk, 23 miles from Tezeen, and ^t night entered the 

 Jugrlulluk Pass, 2 miles long, and exceedingly narrow, precipitous, and 

 difficult. They found the exit from the pass closed up by two strong 

 barriers of prickly holly-oak stretching completely across the defile. 

 On the 13th, when the remnant of the force reached the neighbourhood 

 of Gundamuk, where the final struggle, or rather massacre, took place, 

 they had only about twenty muskets left. Captain Souter and seven 

 or eight men were taken prisoners. Dr. Brydon alone reached Jella- 

 labad, with just life enough remaining to allow him to recount the 

 terrible disasters of this memorable retreat. The rest were killed. 

 During the whole time of the retreat the attacks of the Afghans were 

 incessant, the cold was intense, and the retreating force was almost 

 without food. Including camp-followers, women, and children, about 

 26,000 individuals were destroyed. 



General Sale held Jellalabad, General Nott maintained himself in 

 Candahar, and Colonel Palmer, with one native regiment and some 

 artillery, retained Ghuznee, which however was afterwards taken from 

 him, and Palmer and the remains of his army made prisoners. Akber 

 Khan on the 18th of January laid siege to Jellalabad, and though the 

 wretched mud walls as well as the fortifications thrown up by General 

 Sale were shattered by a tremendous eartli quake, and many other 

 earthquakes occurred which obliged the soldiers to sleep in their 

 clothes and accoutrements for fear of breaches in the walls aud of 

 night attacks, Akber Khan was neither able to take the place nor 

 prevent Sale's foraging parties from supplying the garrison with the 

 means of subsistence. 



Lord Ellenborough succeeded Lord Auckland as Governor-General 



