AFGHANISTAN. 



time his deadly enemy. Abdurrahman had for 

 some time been residing in voluntary exile at 

 Sumarcand, and with the help of Russia might 

 become very dancrerous to Shere Ah. It had 

 been lately reported that Russia proposed to 

 exchange Abdurrahman for Khudayar Khan, 

 the ex-ruler of Khokand, who had escaped dur- 

 ing the preceding winter from Orenburg to 

 Cnbool. But Khudayar, though he is evidently 

 a man of considerable energy, was not popular 

 with his people, who had thrice expelled him 

 from their country; and M. Vambery thought 

 the Russians were not likely to put themselves 

 to any trouble to get him again into their hands. 

 Abdurrahman, on the other hand, was very 

 popular in northeastern Afghanistan; and by 

 threatening to support him as a pretender to 

 the Afghan throne, Russia could at any mo- 

 ment secure the submissiveness of Shere Ali 

 to its wishes. 



A special mission was appointed by the In- 

 dian Government in August to proceed to Ca- 

 bool for the purpose of opening negotiations 

 with the Ameer, with a view, among its other 

 objects, to induce the Ameer to allow a British 

 resident to remain permanently at his capital. 

 It was under the direction of Lieutenant-Gen- 

 eral Sir Neville Chamberlain, who was accom- 

 panied by several other officers and a doctor, 

 and numbered, with his retinue of escorts, 

 guides, and bearers, about one thousand men. 

 Sir Neville Chamberlain, the chief of this mis- 

 sion, is an officer of the Indian service, whose 

 military career began with the former Afghan 

 war, where, although he was hardly more than 

 a boy, he served with great honor, and gained 

 a high reputation for gallantry. He was soon 

 made commander of a regiment of irregular 

 cavalry, and rose by rapid steps to the com- 

 mand of the Punjaub frontier force, a body of 

 about eleven regiments of infantry and cavalry, 

 which is stationed to guard the line of the 

 northwest border, is directly under the orders 

 of the Government of the Punjaub, and has 

 been engaged in almost constant conflict with 

 the enemy. From this command he was called 

 during the mutiny to take the place of Colonel 

 Chester, Adjutant-General of the Army, who 

 was killed before Delhi. On the fall of Delhi 

 he returned to the Punjaub, whence he was se- 

 lected to command the troops which undertook 

 the Umbeyla compaign of 1863. He was here 

 severely wounded for the eighth time during 

 his military service, and the campaign was com- 

 pleted by Sir John Garvock. General Cham- 

 berlain after these events retired from active 

 service to the more quiet but highly honorable 

 position of Commander-in-Chief of the Madras 

 Army, which he held at the time when he was 

 appointed upon the mission to Cabool. By 

 reason of his long and distinguished service 

 on the border, it is said " no English name is 

 better known or more respected throughout 

 Afghanistan." Among his associates was Mr. 

 Walter Henry Bellew, who had accompanied 

 Lumsden's mission to Cabool twenty-one years 



before, and was a member of the party which 

 accompanied Sir Douglas Forsyth to Yarkand 

 and Kashgar in 1874. 



The embassy arrived at Simla about the 1st 

 of September. An envoy had been sent to the 

 Ameer at Cabool with letters announcing the 

 intention of the Governor-General to dispatch 

 the mission, and General Chamberlain and his 

 staff remained near the frontier for several 

 days awaiting the answer of the Ameer. The 

 envoy, Ghulam Hussein Khan, who was per- 

 sonally well known and popular at Cabool, 

 having resided there as a British agent for 

 several years, was hospitably received, Sep- 

 tember 10th, but was given no encouragement 

 concerning the object of his visit; the Ameer 

 saying, it was reported, in reference to the 

 British embassy, that if he chose to receive a 

 mission he would himself invite it, but mean- 

 while it must await his pleasure at Peshawer. 

 Sir Neville Chamberlain, having learned the 

 Ameer's determination, decided to proceed on 

 his expedition without waiting for a formal 

 answer. He left Peshawer on the 21st of Sep- 

 tember for Jumrood, a point in British terri- 

 tory close to the Afghan frontier, while Major 

 Cavagnari of his staff was dispatched with an 

 escort of Khyberies to Ali Musjid, a station in 

 Afghan territory, to ask for a safe passage 

 from the Ameer's officer. The Afghan officer 

 gave a courteous but decided refusal to the 

 British request. After spending three hours 

 in parleying with the Afghan, Major Cavagnari 

 returned to Jumrood. The embassy then re- 

 tired to Peshawer, in obedience to instructions 

 telegraphed from the Viceroy, after which it 

 was dissolved. Ghulam Hussein Khan, the 

 Viceroy's envoy, was recalled from Cabool, 

 and orders were issued for the concentration 

 of troops on the Afghan frontier. Reenforce- 

 ments were dispatched for the garrison at 

 Quetta ; a body of European and native troops 

 was stationed at Thull, at the entrance to the 

 Kuram Valley ; a reserve force was collected 

 at Sukkur ; and the Baroghil and Korambar 

 Passes were occupied by the troops of the 

 Maharajah of Cashmere. On the other hand, 

 the Ameer of Afghanistan threw a large force 

 into the Khyber Pass, having a little after the 

 middle of October, as was estimated at that 

 time, collected at Ali Musjid, three miles from 

 the British station at Jumrood, 25,000 men. 



The Ameer returned by the envoy, Nawab 

 Ghulam Hussein Khan, a reply to the British 

 request, which Lord Cran brook, in a dispatch 

 written afterward, characterized as evasive, 

 and which the British Government refused to 

 accept as Shere Ali's final answer. The Brit- 

 ish Cabinet then instructed the Viceroy of 

 India to address to his Highness a demand, 

 "in temperate language," requiring a full and 

 suitable apology within a given time for the 

 affront he had offered to the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, the reception of a permanent British 

 mission within his territories, and reparation 

 for any injury which had been inflicted by him 



