Peshawur and the Khyber Pass 61 



The Khyber has been well named The Gate of India, 

 for the road through it and over the Bamian Pass 

 is the only route which is practicable for artillery across 

 that vast wall of mountains between Burmah and 

 Beloochistan, a distance of three thousand five hundred 

 miles. The great Napoleon's dearest desire was to 

 lead an army through Persia, by way of Herat, into 

 India. It was not to be ; but as we drive along visions 

 rise before us of other conquerors and their armies, 

 whom from the furthermost ages these mountain 

 heights ihave seen, countless hosts, streaming along 

 the selfsame road our tats are trotting down now. 



There was Nadir Shah, the Persian monarch, who 

 swooped down on India with his destroying legions 

 in 1739, anc ^ returned through the Khyber, after sacking 

 Delhi, with a booty estimated at thirty-two millions 

 sterling, and the great Koh-i-Noor diamond. Having 

 observed the magnificent jewel glittering in the 

 puggaree of the fallen Mogul monarch himself the 

 son of a sheepskin cap-maker he suggested to his 

 royal captive that they should exchange turbans. 



Long before Nadir Shah's day, in 327 B.C. another 

 army wound down the Khyber, fair Greeks and 

 Macedonians, led by Alexander the Great. Earlier 

 still, before Mohammedanism or Christianity were 

 thought of, Tartars, Persians, and Afghans trooped 

 down to their conquests and plunder in India, inter- 

 mingled with caravans of traders, and religious 

 pilgrims from Thibet, Tartary, China, and Siberia, 

 on their way to worship at the holy places of 



