AMONG THE AFFGHANS. 287 



we were now ordered to march through and survey 

 it an escort of 60 Lancers under a British officer, and 

 an officer of the Ameer's, being told off to accompany 

 us. When first we appeared near the villages of 

 Azam, the people began hastily to arm themselves, 

 as if with hostile intentions, determined to oppose 

 the raising of their purdah ; but when Mahomed 

 Shahgassi, the Ameer's officer, rode forward and ex- 

 plained that we were there with the Ameer's consent, 

 they put away their arms, and were friendly at once. 

 At night we put up in the forts, and were made ex- 

 tremely comfortable. The Shahgassi had been one 

 of the officers told off to attend the Russian Embassy 

 in Cabul, and had been with them at Tashkend, and 

 he now drew very unfavourable comparisons. When 

 we objected to putting up in the forts, if, by doing 

 so, we had to turn the women and children out, he 

 said a Eussian officer would have probably been de- 

 lighted to see these put to inconvenience, or, at any 

 rate, would never have thought of inconveniencing 

 himself for them. He specially commented on their 

 uncivil treatment of all who came near them, 

 " Speaking to the officers and respectable residents 

 in the same insulting and imperious tone they used 

 to servants and criminals; putting up in the Musjids; 

 not paying for provisions ; and some not over-vera- 

 cious in their statements." 



He remarked, among other things, on the fact that 

 when Ameer Yakoob Khan visited the British camp, 



VOL. III. T 



