Peshawur and the Khybcr Pass 65 



Below Fort Maude was a little valley, a green patch 

 watered by a streamlet, over which a primitive mill had 

 been put up Lala China; where in 1878 Cavagnari 

 met Sher Ali's officer and received a reply which was 

 the cause of our war with Afghanistan. 



The Russian frontier question has not been shelved 

 yet ; our borderland and Afghanistan are full of no 

 common interest, and may yet be the theatre of one 

 of Britain's last wars. It is well worth while to 

 recall past events, in the face of the old saying that 

 " History repeats itself," a saying which never had a 

 greater chance of verification than it has now among 

 the hill tribesmen, whose rate of civilisation, of pro- 

 gression, is practically nil. Will it be too unin- 

 teresting to look back upon our old disagreements 

 with Russia, our old battles with the Afghans, our 

 perilous marches across this frontier, when what has 

 been shall so likely be again ? 



On the report in 1877 that a Russian envoy was 

 about to visit Kabul, our Viceroy, Lord Lytton, 

 announced his intention to the Amir Sher Ali 

 of sending a British mission there, under General 

 Sir Nevile Chamberlain. However, the Russian 

 General, Stolietoff by name, informed the Amir 

 that the simultaneous presence of two embassies 

 would not be convenient. The Amir therefore refused 

 to allow the British mission to enter Afghanistan ; 

 but as he did not communicate direct with the 

 Viceroy, it had already started and arrived at the 

 Khyber. Here Sir Nevile Chamberlain deputed 



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