INDIA. 



491 



The value of the principal articles of import 

 xport for the years 1877-'78 were as fol- 



lows (according to the " Statistical Abstract re- 

 lating to British 



Jn.lia," No. 13, London, 1879): 



The movement of shipping for 1877-'78 was 

 as follows: 



On March 31, 1878, there were 8,215 miles 

 of railroad in operation, of which 2,171 miles 

 are government roads, and 6,044 miles private 

 roads. The number of post-offices was 4,107. 

 The number of letters sent in the year preced- 

 ing was 115,089,336, and the number of papers 

 10,999,758. The length of the telegraph lines 

 on March 81, 1878, was 18,210 miles, and of 

 wires 42,687 miles; number of stations, 239. 

 In the year 1877-'78 the number of dispatches 

 sent was 1,431,452; the receipts were 306,- 

 089, and the expenditures 352,186. 



The most important event in the history of 

 British India during the year 1879 was the 

 war against Afghanistan. The history of this 

 war until the reoccupation of Cabool by the 

 British has been given in the article AFGHAN- 

 ISTAN. A proclamation was issued by General 

 Roberts after ho reoccupied Cabool, offering 

 an annuity to those Afghans (provided they 

 had not been concerned in the attack on the 

 embassy) who had taken up arms under the 

 belief that Yakoob Khan was a prisoner in the 

 British camp, on condition of their surrender- 

 ing their arms. Sir Richard Temple arrived at 

 Gandahar November 13th, and held a brilliant 

 levee, which was attended by the Afghan Gov- 

 ernor and all the chiefs of the city and the 

 surrounding districts. The Governor of Ghuz- 



neo arrived at Cabool on the 15th, having been 

 summoned there by General Roberta for an 

 inquiry into hia loyalty, und reported that his 

 district was very unsettled. The molluhs had 

 been preaching against the British occupation, 

 and malcontents had assembled there in con- 

 siderable numbers. General Baker was dia- 

 patched with a small body of troops to aettlo 

 the country and procure supplies. On the 

 20th General Roberts received the first convoy 

 from Peshawer by the new route of the Lata- 

 band Pass, the crest of which is 8,000 feet 

 above the sea. Skirmishing continued with 

 the natives. Some cavalry who were sent out 

 to arrest participators in the massacre of the 

 British embassy were attacked by the Afghans 

 from the hills, and retired. A larger force, 

 which was sent out at daybreak the next day 

 to attack the enemy, found that they had fled, 

 whereupon it burned nine villages containing 

 only a few inhabitants, who were first driven 

 out. 



On the 1st day of December the Ameer 

 Yakoob Khan started secretly, under the care 

 of a British guard, for Peshawer, whither he 

 had been summoned by the Viceroy. It waa 

 now apparent that the Ameer was really held 

 a prisoner by the British. lie still, however, 

 asseverated his innocence of any connection 

 with the massacre, having told the correspon- 

 dent of the London " Times " the day before he 

 left the camp that he had never had one mo- 

 ment's disagreement with Sir Louis CavagnarL, 

 and that the outbreak was an unpremeditated 

 act of the rebellious soldiery, which he waa 

 utterly unable to control, and which he deeply 

 deplored. 



Mohammed Hussein, a son of the great 

 Ameer Dost Mohammed, was appointed Gov- 

 ernor of the Maidan, a district thirty milea 

 from Cabool, but was murdered a few days af- 

 terward by the Afghan regulars and hill-men. 

 The newly appointed governors of Kohistan 

 and the Logar Valley were threatened with the 

 same fate. The Afghans who had collected at 

 Ghuzneo, now numbering 7,000 men, started 

 from that place in the first week of December, 

 with the intention of joining a body of 3,000 

 men who were marching from Kohistan upon 

 Cabool. On the 10th General MacPherson oc- 

 cupied Sarkh-Kotal just in time to prevent the 

 junction of the two bodies, attacked the Kohi- 

 atania who occupied a position near by, and 

 dislodged them. General Baker was to move 

 by the way of Charasiab to take them in the 

 rear, while General Massey was to join Gen- 

 eral MacPherson by the way of the Chardeh 

 Valley for a combined movement, with the ob- 

 ject of driving the enemy upon General Baker'a 

 command. The latter movement miscarried, 

 and General Massey waa met by the force from 

 Ghuznee under Mohammed Jan, considerably 

 outnumbering his own. Ho charged upon 

 them without apparent effect upon their body. 

 The enemy then, having been checked in an 

 attempt to reach the Cabool gorge, turned and 



