THE ARMAMENT OE SHERE ALI ; S ARMY. 
141 
were made, rifles imitated, and cartridges turned out by the 100,000 in 
a country which boasts of but few resources. 
Shere Ali could easily enough make regiments of infantry and cavalry, 
dress them after the fashion of the men he had seen paraded in India, 
and drill them in a few simple movements. If he were guilty of the 
solecism of making Highlanders mount on horseback, there was no great 
blunder committed ; they were his mounted rifles, and were not likely 
to come to grief, as every Afghan is more or less of a horseman. But 
in the question of artillery the Ameer had to face a problem which 
must have cost him much anxious thought. The old brass cannon 
which had been used for many years as wall pieces in the different 
fortresses of Afghanistan, sank into insignificance when compared with 
the guns Lord Mayo had given him. The latter were few in number, 
and it was all-important they should be multiplied, so that if three or 
four armies took the field, each should have its due complement of guns. 
There were skilled artizans in Cabul who had made brass guns, and 
one of these, named Surferaz, was given funds by Shere Ali and 
peremptorily ordered to turn out guns in the pattern of the siege train 
and mountain battery which had lately arrived from India. The unlucky 
man tried his best, but at the end of a few months his work was pro¬ 
nounced a failure; and as he had spent 12,000 Rs. in his experiments, 
he was summarily thrown into prison, and all his property confiscated. 
This was his reward for obeying the orders of a tyrant. But Shere 
Ali was not to be foiled ; and rightly attributing the failure to want of 
technical knowledge, he sent the uncle of Surferaz, Dost Mahomed, a 
skilled gunsmith, to Peshawur, to be instructed in the mysteries of 
rifled guns. Dost Mahomed may be allowed to tell his own story, as it 
is full of interest. lie says — 
“ I am a Cabuli by birth, and a gunsmith. My father was a gunsmith 
before me. After Shere Aiks return from India, I was sent to Peshawur 
with a letter to Colonel Pollock, the Commissioner there, in which he 
was asked to allow me to visit the arsenal, and see how the rifled guns 
were made. I remained in Peshawur for three months, until the per¬ 
mission of Government arrived. I then visited the arsenal daily, and 
saw exactly how everything was done ; and on my departure I was 
given models of guns in wood, with complete drawings of the details. 
I returned to Cabul, and with these models and some complete models 
of rifled breech-loading Armstrongs which had been given to the 
Ameer during his visit to India, I began Work. I had three principal 
assistants : my nephew, Surferaz (who had then been liberated), 
Mahomed Ali, and a man named Hashed. Any number of workmen 
were at my disposal, as I had only to state the number I required and 
they were impressed from among the city smiths. Before commencing 
a gun, a sum of money was given to me which I was not to exceed. 
“ The following were the prices in Cabuli rupees :—• 
Rs. 
Held gun ....... 1500 
B/.H.A. gun ...... 1000 
Mountain gun ... BOO 
„ n (laminated steel) .. 600 
