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FURRUGKAB AD 
and his allies this unusually dry season will be still more fatal. 
They had calculated that the rains would set in as usual, and would 
preclude the possibility of General Lake's taking the field till they 
had finished their preparations for defence ; but instead of that, he 
is piobably by this time on their frontiers, at the head of an army 
in perfect health and spirits. 
August 30. — At five in the morning I set off from Futty Ghur, 
and arrived at half after six at the Call Nuddi, where I found one 
of the cavalry horses dying, and another lying drowned on the 
bank. We crossed without difficulty, and arrived at Jelalabad 
by nine, a distance altogether of about twenty-four miles. We 
did not encamp precisely on the same ground as before, but in 
a tope, which, as the wind was high, was more pleasant. The 
parched appearance of the country was truly melancholy, and the 
heat most oppressive. 
August 3 1 . — Moving by half after four, we hoped to have escaped 
the heat of the sun ; but it arose unclouded, and was very power- 
ful before we got to Meerun-ka-Serai, a long twelve miles from 
our last resting place. Having learned that Colonel Vandeleure 
would be this day at Bellowar, I wrote to him, to invite him to join 
my party at dinner, and to inform him, that I did not feel it neces- 
sary to keep my cavalry guard any longer with me, and that there- 
fore, if it would be any convenience to him, I would put them under 
his orders. This letter I sent off by a messenger at eleven o'clock, 
who returned with an answer by eight in the evening, having gone 
sixteen coss, or nearly forty miles, in nine hours. This I considered 
as very expeditious, and rewarded him with tM^o rupees, a sum 
which he probably had never before earned in one day. The 
