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 ^.
 
 CHAR-EE-KAR 
 
 SERVICE THERE WITH THE 
 
 4TH GOORKHA REGIMENT 
 
 (SHAH SHOOJA'S FORCE), 
 
 IN 1841; 
 AN ERISODE OF THE 
 
 COLONEL HAUGHTON, C.S.I. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PROVOST AND CO., 40, TAVISTOCK STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1879.
 
 501SS63 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 It will be remembered by some who read this account that, on my 
 return to England after the close of the Afghan Campaign in IS-iS^ I was 
 earnestly requested by them to publish a narrative of the events I wit- 
 nessed, or in Avhich I took part during that Campaign. It is desirable, 
 therefore, to record the reasons which induced me to abstain from doing so 
 then ; as also those by which I have been influenced, after the lapse of a 
 generation, in compiling the statements here prefaced. Several narratives, 
 some especially referring to the disastrous period of the campaign, have 
 been published. One in particular. Eyre's Journal, contained an account 
 of the defence of Char-ee-kar from the pen of my friend and companion, 
 Miijor Eldred Pottinger, written while he was still held a prisoner by the 
 Afghans ; it contained some expressions which, had I been at the writer's 
 elboAv, he would doubtless have altered ; but it was sent home for publica- 
 tion before we wet. On the whole, it was a fair account ; though from the 
 fact that the writer of it was wounded, while acting as a volunteer with the 
 Native Artillery, within a few hours of his taking refuge with our garrison, 
 and confined to his bed till we were about to retreat, it was impossible he 
 could be perfectly informed of all that took place at that time. I was not 
 ambitious of parading my name before the public, and I knew very w'ell 
 that if I wrote a full and true account, wdth such comments as I should 
 then have felt bound to make, if writing for public information, I should 
 hurt the feelings of the friends of many deceased brother officers, raise a 
 nest of hornets about my own ears, and enter an arena of literary strife, for 
 which I was unsuited by habit and inclination. For these reasons I re- 
 mained silent. Since then, from time to time, writers who had occasion to 
 refer to Char-ee kar, have frequently made the mistake of attributing tlic 
 (Icrcnce of that post to Eldred Pottinger ; but this has generally occurred in 
 a way which I could only meet publicly by a lengthy narrative, and on one 
 notable occasion by appearing to side with my gallant comrade's enemies. 
 I have mon^ than once privately remonstrated, and received promise of
 
 justice, as usual in such cases, to be meted out to me at a future time. 
 Last year Mr. Kaye, iu his memoir of Pottinger, published I think in Good 
 Words, again alluded to Eldred Pottinger as the defender of Char-ee-kar. 
 I went to him to point out his error, and at his suggestion drew up the 
 accompanying memoir, to be made use of in correcting his next edition of 
 the War in Afghanistan. While writing, I had occasion for geographical 
 information, on a trivial point, on Avhich my memory was at variance with 
 Pottinger's published account ; I applied to Mr. Kaye to obtain access to a 
 map, believed to be alone accessible through his or some other official's 
 favour. That gentleman never replied to my note. I have concluded, 
 therefore, that it must have been consigned to his ''Balaam Box,'^ with 
 that of the Emperor of Abyssinia — distinguished company, no doubt. The 
 result is that (unlike the Emperor, having no opportunity of making repri- 
 sals), the labour of my pen goes to my private friends, instead of having 
 the honour of furnishing material for the historian. I have recently had 
 access to a MS. Map in the Surveyor General's Office, Calcutta, which 
 proves that my memory of the geography of the country is correct. 
 
 In compiling this, I have referred to Eyre's Journal ; to an account 
 published in the Englishman Newspaper in 1842 liy Major McSlierry, from 
 dictation of Moteeram Havildar'^' of the Goorkha Regiment ; and to a 
 memorandum written by myself at the time, the last ever penned with my 
 right hand. 
 
 My friend. Colonel Eeid, R.A., has obligingly altered Moteeram's 
 sketch in accordance with my memory ; but it makes the place look more 
 imposing than it really was. The extract of Major Robert Codrington's 
 letter, in the appendix, more correctly describes the weakness of the 
 position. 
 
 In conclusion, I must add that I have not the least desire to detract in 
 any way from the high reputation of Major Pottinger, \\oh\y earned. It 
 will be seen from the narrative that to his chivalrous refusal to abandon me, 
 I owe my life Avhen wounded; but I wish to make plain that' to Captain 
 Christopher Codrington, and to myself after his death, the credit is due of 
 having, as Commander of the Goorkha Regiment, defended the post of 
 Char-ee-kar. Pottinger's own letter in the appendix ought, I think, to 
 settle this, were it disputed, which in reality has not as yet been the case. 
 
 I have one more remark to make. Eldred Pottinger, in writing his 
 narrative, naturally spoke of what had been done, as any one present would 
 dot " Wo advanced," " we retreated," arc natural expressions ; but the 
 use of the pronoun generally is not intended to convey the idea that the 
 
 *Sce appendix.
 
 writer advanced or ordered an advance or retreat, but denotes the act of 
 the writer's party. So when Pottinger says it was owing to my conduct 
 that ''we were able to hold out," it cannot be inferred that he meant to 
 convey the idea tliat he was the commandant of the place ; there are similar 
 expressions in his published narrative, and I am not in the least surprised 
 that, in the absence of anything from my own pea, casual readers were 
 under the impression that Pottinger commanded at Char-ee-kar. I remem- 
 ber well that a portion of the English public imbibed the belief, from the 
 frequent mention of her son-in-law by Lady Sale, that he was the chief 
 defender of Kal)ool. 
 
 I have placed in the appendix the statements of two survivors of the 
 garrison, unexpectedly met with since the narrative was penned, and also 
 the printed narrative of Motee Earn Ilaviklar. Numerous discrepancies 
 may be observed : but memory is frail, and not to lie much depended upon 
 in such exciting times. Had I been questioned immediately on arrival in 
 Kabool, I could not have said how long our siege had lasted — it was one 
 very long day to me. The circumstances I have stated have induced me to 
 write of Char-ee-kar ; perhaps, if ever leisure permits, I may pen adven- 
 tures during the campaign, earlier and later. 
 
 PREFACE OF THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This pamphlet is reprinted almost verbatim from the edition privately 
 circulated in 1867- I am now moved to publish it by the fact that the 
 narrative by the late Major Eldred Pottinger, C.B., of the same event has 
 been recently reprinted — verbatim, I believe — and conseqiiently liable to 
 the same misinterpretation as the original was. The appendices are given 
 more with a view of showing tliat my statements are not exaggerated, than 
 as being correct narratives of facts. Indeed, of two of the writers — 
 Moteeram and Mohun Beer — it can only he said that their narratives, how- 
 ever interesting, contain much that is erroneous and confusing. My own 
 account was made use of by Lieutenant Low (of late) LN., in an article 
 publislied by him in Erery Boy's Magazine, in 1877-
 
 CHAR-EE-KAR. 
 
 In the year 1839 the powers ruling- India sent Shah Shooja-ool- 
 Moolk to his native country, accompanied by an army composed 
 of Eng'lish and Indian troops, to secure his restoration to the 
 throne of Afgdianistan, from which he liad been expelled thirty 
 years previously, and which he had often since in vain tried to 
 reg-ain. I believe the orig-inal project was to seat him on his 
 throne, and then leave him to his own resources, with the aid 
 onl}^ of a small conting-ent of Indian troops, to be raised, 
 officered, and drilled by officers detached from the armies of 
 India. The plan did not prove successful, for, contrary to the 
 expectation entertained, it became apparent that, however un- 
 popular the former Ruler, Dost Mohamed, mig-ht have been, 
 Shah Shooja was not a whit less so. Some did not at all yield 
 submission to him, and as early as the spring- of 1840 there was a 
 serious rebellion, also put down by Eng'lish troops, in what is 
 called the Kohistan ; and altog-ether it was found that Shah 
 Shooja could not g-et on without their assistance. We had g-ar- 
 risons at Kabool, at Ghuznee, at Kelat-ee-Giljee, at Kandahar, 
 and also at Q.uetta, at the head of the Bolan Pass. The troops 
 rait-'ed spccinlly for the Shah's service were scattered about, and 
 acted in couj unction with the others. The Kohistan, which 
 General Sale had with much difficulty broug-ht into order in the 
 latter end of 1810, was thoug'ht to require the presence of troops 
 to keep the inhabitants in awe ; and a yery small Regiment was 
 raised for the purpose and stationed at Char-ee-kar, the principal 
 town of the district, under command of Lieutenant Maule, of the 
 Beng-al Artillery. The Kohistan had a native Governor ; but a 
 Political Officer, with an Assistant, and a Doctor to attend to 
 their health, were stationed in it also, with what view I know 
 not. Early in 1841 the Native Corps raised specially for the pur- 
 pose was deemed insufficient for ''overawing-" the inhabitants,
 
 and a Eeg'iment of the Shah's Indian troops, composed of 
 Goorkhas, chiefl}' natives of Nepaul, ^'as sent to take its place. 
 These were further supported by two six and one eig'hteen- 
 pounder g*uns, manned by some of the Shah's own g'unners 
 (Mahomedans, natives of the Punjab), under the nominal com- 
 mand of an eunuch of the seragdio, who, however, did not leave 
 his more delicate charg-e. Thus much has been said to show 
 that the country, the scene of this narrative, was chronically in 
 an insubordinate state. Dost Mahomed himself had only been 
 able to master it by an act of notable treachery, so his country- 
 men reported. It is' said that, under security of a solemn oath, 
 he invited all the chiefs to a conference, and then murdered 
 them. All the male inhabitants were used to arms, and usually 
 carried them. In fact, it was an ordinary sigdit to see men at the 
 plong-h with swords by their sides and matchlock and shield 
 slung' at their backs. 
 
 The whole of Afg'hanistan is mountainous ; it is, therefore, not 
 eas}' to say why the countr}' to the north of Kabool and south of 
 the g'reat rang-e separating* Kabool from Turkistan, should be 
 called the " Kohistan," or Hill Country; but such is the fact. 
 There is a hig-h range of mountains shutting* in the valley of 
 Kohistan to the west, another to the north and east ; and two low 
 rang-es of hills lie between it and Kabool. The valley varies in 
 width, but is nowhere less than twelve miles wide. Although a 
 large river, in many places unfordable, runs through the valley, 
 collecting the waters of numerous streams, the g-enerai character 
 of the valle}" is dry and sterile, cultivation being generally con- 
 fined to the gorges and immediate foot of the mountains, as the 
 soil, from its nature, does not retain water, and can only be cul- 
 tivated where the supply is abundant. To be sure, some canals 
 for the purpose of irrigation exist, but the turbulent character of 
 the people is unfavourable to works of this sort, invo).ving, as 
 they do, much labour, and so easy of destruction as they are. 
 
 The inhabitants are for the most part located in castles, the 
 walls of which are formed of mud, ver}^ solid, and able to resist 
 the fire of small ordnance. Ever}- landholder, or at least -every 
 family of any respectability, had one of these, and even in the 
 towns of Char-ee-kar and Istalif there were several. 
 
 There were no wells in the country, the nature of tke subsoil, 
 containing* (as it did) huge boulders, prohibiting* it. The inhabi- 
 tants were, therefore, dependent for water upon streams issuing
 
 3 
 
 from the mountains, or canals from tliem. These canals were 
 o-enerally lined with g'ardens and mulberry trees, and, on one 
 side at least, had a hand of cultivation beyond. 
 
 Char-ee-kar was reckoned to be about forty miles, as tlie crow 
 flies, from Kabool. It contained a population of, perhaps, three 
 thousand inhabitants, and derived its supply of water from a 
 canal which conveyed the waters of the river of Ghorebund. 
 The head of the canal was said to be distant nine or ten miles. 
 The town was situated at the termination of the slope of the 
 we.^tern hills, from which it was distant about two miles. The 
 canal from Ghorebund and the road to Kabool ran parallel to the 
 mountains for some miles, dividing" the cultivated country from 
 the mountain slope almost devoid of veg'Ptation. It was on this 
 slope, close to the town of Char-ee-kar, that the Goorkha 
 Reg-iment was stationed. 
 
 By ascending- the slope a short distance, we could see into 
 Nijrow, Gain, 13.ala Gain, and Doornama valleys on the opposite 
 side of the g-reat one, and distant from fifteen to twenty miles, 
 which had either never submitted or speedily thrown off the 
 yoke of Shah Shooja, 
 
 Amid the cultivation, not far removed from the canal, and 
 about three miles distant from Char-ee-kar in the direction of 
 Kabool, were a cluster of castles called Lug'hmanee. I believe 
 they were the forfeited property of some native chief. There was 
 located Major Potting-er, C.B., the Political Ag-ent, who had 
 earned a name throug'hout Europe and Central Asia b}' his 
 defence of Herat. AYith him were Lieutenant Eattray, his 
 assistant, and the Doctor ; he had numerous Afg'han retainers, 
 and a g'uard of Goorkhas from Char-ee-kar. 
 
 The Goorkha Regriment of Shah Shooja's Force was sent to 
 Char-ee-kar in the month of April or May, 1841, to take the place 
 of the Koliistnnee Keg-iment, commanded by Lieutenant Maule. 
 It is time to 1)eg-in a more particular account of this corps and its 
 position The heg'iment was raised in 1838 at Lodhiana, in 
 India, for the service of Shah Shooja. At first it was composed 
 half of natives of the Himalaya, called Goorkhas, and half of 
 natives of the plains. However, just before its arrival at Char- 
 ee-kar it had been remodelled by substituting- Goorkha recruits 
 for the Indians. The g-reat bulk of the Regiment were mere 
 youths, and fully half had never seen a shot fired. The native 
 officers and non-commissioned ofiicers were for the most part
 
 very inferior. Tliere were, however, some brilliant exceptions! 
 Most were men who had for many years failed to obtain promo- 
 tion in the Hill Regiments in India, and had joined Shah Shooja's 
 service to g-et a step of rank. Somewhat less than one-half of 
 the Eeg'iment had, however, witnessed the capture of Ghuznee, 
 and a portion of them had done g'ood service at Bameean in the 
 previous year. The officers were Captain Codring'ton, of the 
 49th Beng-al Native Infantry, who commanded it; Lieutenant 
 William Broadfoot, second in command; m.yself, the Adjutant ; 
 Ensig-n Salusbury, the Quarter-Master; and Ensign Rose, the 
 Subaltern. There were also two European non-commissioned 
 officers, Serg-eant-Major Byrne, and Q.uarter-Master Serg-eant 
 Hanrahan. There were about sixteen native commissioned 
 officers, and 742 rank and file. The whole were pretty well 
 drilled, for the Commanding- Officer had been himself nine years 
 Adjutant of a Regiment, and added untiring devotion to his duty 
 to a thorougii knowledg-e of it. 
 
 When we arrived at Char-ee-kar, we had for months to live in 
 tents; in fact, I occupied a tent up to the time of the outbreak. 
 We found that Lieutenant Maule had commenced Barracks^ for 
 his men, which we were to finish and occupy. A square of one 
 hundred yards each way had been enclosed with a mud wall, and 
 it was intended to build rooms agrainst the w«ll all around for 
 the occupation of the men. The officers' quarlers were to be on 
 one side of the enclosure, on the same plan, but of two stories. 
 The houses were to be, like all in the country, flat-roofed. My 
 Commanding' Officer and myself were at once struck with the 
 indefensiblenessf of the position, and I believe he remonstrated 
 with some one on the subject, thoug-h not with the military 
 authorities of the Shah's Eorce. If he did, nothing- came of it. 
 We had to carry on the work after the orig-inal plan, and as far as 
 I can remember, the only alteration made was the surreptitious 
 addition of round bastions similiar to those of the native castles. 
 I remember this ver}^ clearly, as it was entirely opposed to the 
 instructions Captain Codring'ton had received, viz., that he was 
 to build merely a Barrack, The sum allowed certainly did not 
 exceed GOO/., of which not more than 400/. was expended, a very 
 
 ■^ See Appendix B. 
 + In a letter to my father, I described the place as ciiarniini^, but ()l)served, "I 
 do not understand why we have been sent nere, unless the Government are in a 
 hurry to get rid of us.''
 
 moderate amount for housing* between 900 and* 1,000 souls in 
 such a climate. It was apparent to us that, in the event of an 
 attack, water would he a g-reat difficulty, but we were led to 
 believe that such an event was impossible. However, as, in 
 addition to my other duties, I had to supervise the building- and 
 keep account of the expenditure, I did reflect very seriously on 
 the subject of the water supply. Vie drew that for our ordinary 
 consumption from the Ghorebund Canal, which passed about one 
 hundred jards in front of our Barracks, but a very small supply 
 was also obtainable from Khojeh-seh-Yaran, a little valley in the 
 hills to the west of us, the proprietor of which allowed the stream 
 to trickle down once or twice per week to enable us to make 
 mud for our walls. It occurred to me that we mig'ht either 
 bring- this stream down under-g-round, or possibly discover 
 another spriug-, and so conduct it ; for it was palpable that an 
 open canal above g-round mig'ht be cut otf at any minute. I sent 
 for the most celebrated dig-g-ers of "kahrez,"'^ as the underg-rouud 
 conduits are called, who all negatived the possibility of such an 
 undertaking- for the reasons which forbade wells ; and, as they 
 justly observed, had such a measure been practicable, the inha- 
 bitants of Char-eekar would have resorted to it long- since. As 
 the only other measure we could adopt, we intended that if we 
 could manag-e to save enoug-h out of the sum alloAved for build- 
 ing- the Barracks, we would construct a tank in the centre of the 
 Barrack-square, which would contain a supply for a few days. 
 With this view we excavated the earth required for the works 
 from that spot. It will be seen, however, that this place was 
 destined to be applied to a very different purpose. 
 
 Xt the time when our trouble commenced, the Barracks were 
 partiall}- finished. "We had four walls, varying- from seven to 
 twenty feet in height, pierced by two g-ateways, east and west, 
 with a row of flat-roofed rooms for the men all round the inside, 
 except at one spot where were the officers' quarters. Unfortu- 
 nately as yet we had no gate for the eastern entry, or doors for 
 any of the rooms. The Barrack square was built on a slope, so 
 that its interior was commanded by the trees bordering the canal 
 in front, distant about 100 yards. It was also commanded b}' 
 the high towers of a castle forming the southern entra-nce of the 
 town of Char-ee-kar. Its north, south, and west faces were com- 
 manded by a Mahomedan oratory and a butt erected beyond 
 -;:- lucludiiig camp followers, and women and children of the Sepoys.
 
 reach of our muskets. In front, or to the east, the bnnksof the 
 canal alrea.ly mentioned, also g'arden walls, formed abundant 
 shelter for an enemy ; hut in this direction, what was worst, was 
 a small building" bejond the canal, which we ourselves had 
 erected as a mess house, and a stable on the banks of the canal 
 in course of erection for our horses. There were also a low 
 range of mud huts for shelter of our married sepoys; but these 
 were built so as to be pretty well commanded from the Barracks. 
 Any one acquainted with military matters will see that our 
 arrang'ements were as bad as they well could be- It is to be 
 observed, however, that the sligditly defensive character which 
 our Barracks took, was in opposition to the intentions of the 
 ruling- authorities. The most rig-id economy was the order of the 
 day, and had it been possible to select and make defensible a 
 position (which it certainly was), I feel assured the proposition 
 would have been neg'atived, and that the proposer would simply 
 have broug-ht himself into disg'race. 
 
 We had not been w^ithout some indications of the coming- 
 storm. Reports of a movement in the adjoining- independent 
 districts were rife. Thieves reputed to be from that quarter 
 prowled about; not many days previously a shepherd was killed 
 on the mountains near us, and -his flock driven away. Tliieves 
 visited our own camp at nig-ht. My tent was pitched on the 
 banks of the canal, and I had a g-uard consisting- of a cori)oral 
 and four privates and a bug'ler, it being- my duty as Adjutimt to 
 cause the bugle to be sounded for parade before dawn of day. 
 One man was constantly on sentry, and the rest slepi, on the 
 g-round by him. One nig-ht a musket was stolen from beside 
 one of the sleeping- sepoy-s, and on another the bug-ler's bug-le 
 was carried off. These articles were paraded in the independent 
 country. I received a messag-e from an old fakeer to whom I 
 had shown some favour, living- at the place called Khojeh-seh- 
 Yaran— the tomb of a saint — recommending- me strongly to 
 spend the wdnter in Kabool; and aliog'ether Codring-ton and myself 
 believed something- wrong- was g'oing- on. I know that he wrote 
 to this effect either to Major Po+ting-er or his Assistant, Lieu-. 
 tenant llattray, and was answered by the latter that he mig-ht 
 rest assured of full notice — twenty-four or fort.y-eig'ht ho'irs' 
 notice, I forg-et which period wns named— of any movement on 
 the part of the. rebels in the independent district. Captain Cod- 
 ring-ton handed me the note, and 1 put it into my pocket. When
 
 I lay wounded at Kabool, one day an officer came into my room, 
 and seeing" a number ol' papers, the contents of my pocket, lying- 
 in a recess of the wall by the side of my bed, said, " What liave 
 you got there ?" He beg-an to examine the papers, and coming- 
 to Rattrays' note, said, ''You don't want this; this is of no use to 
 you," and there and then tore it up, and threw it into the fire. 
 i mention this fact as a proof that Captain Codring-ton was on the 
 alert, and would have been ready to put himself on the defensive 
 if the authorities, under whom he was placed, had cncourag-ed 
 him to do so. The triuli to me is plain, that no one in power 
 anticii)ated any such outbreak as actually took place. All my 
 servants, with one sing-le exception, were Afg-lians or Persians. 
 One of the latter had recently left mo. He was a native of Kan- 
 . dahar, and I have now before me the address he left with me : 
 ''I'utteh Mahomed, to the care of Khan Mahomed Khan, in the 
 service of Sirdar Poordil Khan;" the latter was one of the 
 brothers of Ameer Dost Mahomed. It is possible that my ser- 
 vant, who refused to g-ive any reason for leaving- my service, 
 may have had some inkling- of tlie conspiracy brewing', but I 
 think not. None of tlie others certainly had any, and they 
 remained faithful to me 
 
 Thus much by way of a preliminary. On the morning- of the 
 3rd November, ISil, some of my servants started on business to 
 Kabool, They returned in a few hours, with intimation that the 
 road was occupied by rebels from Nijrow, at a distance of some 
 ten or twelve miles. This was absolutely the first intimation of the 
 existence of any body of rebels in the Shah's territories. After con- 
 sultation with me. Captain Codring-ton proceeded at 1 p.m. to 
 communicate this intellig-ence to Major Potting-er atLug-limanee, 
 and to consult as to what steps should be taken in consequence. 
 Major Potting-er being- at that time the officer under whose 
 orders he was acting-. What follows, I take from a memorandum 
 now before me, wa-itten on the evening- of the -14h November, 
 lS4d ; it is the last I ever wrote with m3' rig-ht hand. It con- 
 cludes abruptly, for at the time drowsiness rendered me incap- 
 able of writing- more. 
 
 At 2 p.m. firing- commenced in the direction of Lug-hmanee. 
 My first impression was, that it was nothing- of importance, and 
 arose out of an attempt of some of the hostag'c chiefs there 
 detained to make oft"; but' observing- that the firing- continued 
 and that there were apparently two parties eng-aged, I deemed it
 
 8 
 
 my duty to send to the relief at least of my own commanding- 
 officer, who had intended to return immediately, and had evi- 
 dently been unable to do so. Tliere arose a serious debate in my 
 own mind. Lieutenant William Broadfoot, the second in com- 
 mand, had returned to Kabool to act as Secretary to Sir Alexander 
 Burnes, who was to succeed Sir William Macnaghten. There 
 remained, therefore, only three very junior officers (Ensig"ns) 
 with the Reg-iment ; I was the senior in years and standing-. If 
 I went with the party I proposed to send, I .should leave the 
 Reg-iment — now the most important charg-e — to the two junior 
 officers. Ag-ain, if I sent either of the junior, and any failure 
 took place, men mig'ht blame me for not g'oing- myself. I con- 
 cluded that the best plan was to g-o myself; for, if successful, all 
 was well : if I failed, the attempt would be evidence that I had 
 not left a difficult duty to others. At a quarter tu three, there- 
 fore, I started with 120 men or thereabouts, in two companies. 
 One g-reat object I had in view was, to g'et dow^n unobserved, so 
 as to be able to ascertain the actual state of affairs before becom- 
 ing" eng-ag-ed. Instead, therefore, of following* the liig-h road, I 
 at once cros.sed the canal and marched throug-h the cultivation, 
 thus manag-ing" to reach Lug'hmanee undiscovered. Arrived, I 
 found that the attack was mainly from the Kabool side. I 
 rounded the fort, and then found that the enemy were chiefly 
 occupying- a larg-e walled g-arden, into which I manag-ed to g-et 
 almost unopposed, one or two men only being- wounded. These 
 I was compelled to leave in a ditch, wuth injunctions to be quite 
 quiet, till the affair was over. The en(>my was completely laken 
 by surprise, and at once ran. The entrances to g-ardens are 
 usually made so small that but one person can enter at a time, 
 and he must bend double to do so. This is done to keep out 
 cattle ; thus before the enemy could g-et out, a g-ood many were 
 killed. The coats (padded with cotton) of several were set on 
 fire by their own g'un notches. I mention this, as a similar 
 occurrence has g-iven rise to statsments that our troops had 
 burjit the bodies of their eiicmies. 
 
 On our appearance the g-ari-iso;i of Lug-hmanee also sallied out, 
 aud the eneuiy were driven off at all points. Captain Cotlring-ton 
 thou streng-ihcned the g-arrison of Lug-hmanee to 120 men, ;ind 
 agreed with iMajor Potting-ei' to send at dawn next day a su})ply 
 of provisions and ammunititui, which ^Tajor Potting-er was to send 
 out a party to receive and convey into his castle. Our enlii'c loss
 
 was ten killed and wounded. "We g-ot back about sunset ; but 
 before I finally joined Captain Codring-ton, one sad event occurred 
 which troubled him much afterwards. There was a small village 
 adjoining" the castles, the principal inhabitants of which came 
 out to assure him of their loyalty, they were unarmed. Unfor- 
 tunately as he passed, a shot was fired by one of the rebels from 
 the direction of the villag-e. This was attributed to treachery. 
 Our men had, on hearing- the report of the rebel shot, prepared 
 to answer it. A raising' of the hand and a wave of it, made by 
 my beloved Commander, settled the fate of six elders of the vil- 
 lag-e, who lay dead as I passed. I know only of tliis fact from 
 his own lips. I have never heard it adverted to since. It is 
 highly probable that these people deserved their fate; for next 
 year, many months after this occurrence, when I was a prisoner 
 in the hands of the Afg-lians, a young- man, to whom I had done a 
 g-ood turn once, was sentry over our party ; he formed my ac- 
 quaintance, and in conversation told me that the little villag-e of 
 Lug-hmanee lost thirty-three men on that day. "\Ye saw nothing- 
 of the enemy on our way back to Char-ee-kar by the ordinary 
 road, beyond noting- that some still hung* about on the road 
 towards Kabool. ^Ye reached our barrack after sunset, and made 
 arrang-ements for our own security, and the suppl,y of provisions 
 and ammunition to be furnished next day. I don't think I slept 
 that night, or took off" my clothes then. I know that sleep 
 entirely left me for several weeks after. I onh- remember once 
 attempting- to sleep; it was in the daytime, and was unsuccess- 
 ful. My usual post at nig-ht, when not moving- about, was in a 
 chair near the g"ate, where I soothed my wearied nerves with a 
 cheroot. 
 
 Before dawn on the 4th November, tiie relief promised to 
 Lughmanee was in motion. I started with several ponies, loaded 
 with ammunition and provisions. I had with me my g-allant 
 young- comrade and dear friend, Ensign Salusbury, Quarter- 
 Master Sergeant Hanrahan, one six-pounder gun, and three 
 weak companies of Goorkhas. or not more than 200 men. There 
 had been heavy firing during the night, so that we knew that 
 1 ho enemy still hiiu^- about Lughmanee. It was good broad 
 d?;ylight as we approached, and I observed a considerable body, 
 a])parently seven or eight hundred, of the enemy on the slope of 
 the hill to our right, among broken ground; this much embar- 
 rassed me. I had the most positive orders not to compromise
 
 10 
 
 my party or g'un, I was to convoy the stores to what I may call 
 the latitude of Lugiimanee, whence, on seeing* me, Major Pot- 
 ting'er was to detach a party to receive them. The hig'h road 
 passed Lug'hmanee at a distance of about 500 yards ; by a sharp 
 turn to the left, a narrow lane enclosed by mud walls led to the 
 castle. It was foreseen that if I went down this lane, I migdit 
 lose my gMin and possibly not be able to return. I was cautioned 
 ag'ainst doing' so. I halted and sent Ensigm Salusbury and 
 two companies, with orders to turn up the party who threatened 
 our rig'ht, and to draw down to my rear if they appeared too 
 much for him, as, when they came out of the broken gTound, I 
 sh©uld be able to work on them with the g"un. The enemy grave 
 way, and our young- soldiers pursued them only too precipitately. 
 Bugies were sounded in vain, and orderlies .sent out without 
 result. At last, seeing- no other means of g-etting- the men back, 
 andobserving- how the enemy v/ere swarming- from all quarters, 
 I sent Serg-eant Ranrahan with the g-reater number of my 
 remaining- men to bring- them back. All this time I had re- 
 mained within five hundred yards of Lugdimanee, waiting- for 
 the people who were to receive the provisions. They came at 
 last — about ten horsemen, who, however, positively refused to 
 return. Circumstances now rendered it impracticable for me to 
 do anything" but fall back on Char-ee-kar. When Salusbury 
 rejoined me, the Quarter-Master Serg-eant and several of his 
 party were wounded, and the firing* had broug-ht tog-ether the 
 enemy from all quarters; the whole countr}^ seemed alive with 
 them. When we commenced falling- back, the men were dis- 
 posed to bolt altog-ether, and it was with the g-reatest difficulty I 
 could save my part}' by sticking* to the g*un, and with one or two 
 faithful men loading* it and firing* it. The enemy's cavalry 
 charg-ed us repeatedly, but as they were compelled to keep to 
 the road, a round from the g*un invariably turned them. Before 
 we 8*ot over the distance, only three miles, poor Salusbury was 
 mortally wounded, and our numbers much diminished. To wind 
 up, when just within reach of the Barracks, the trail of the g-un 
 g-ave way; but the enemy did not venture to close with us. We 
 at once set about measures for our own defence. What provi- 
 sion.^ were to b» had in the town were broug'ht in; but as the 
 shops and houses were all closed, it was not very easy to g-et any- 
 thing*, the more so, as we were ig-norant of the places in wliicli 
 provJ.sions were stored. One of our first acts was to take po.sses-
 
 11 
 
 sion of a castle which entirely commanded our Barrack square. 
 We were anxious to do so with as little otfence to the owner as 
 possible; it was necessary that he should not have the option of 
 refusing' us. Captain (Jodring'ton aad myself, therefore, went to 
 the castle, and asked to speak to the owner — Khoja .Meer Khan, 
 I believe, was his name. AVhen he came out, we eng-ag'ed him 
 in conversation, while we walked towards our own Barracks. It 
 was under these rather unfavourable circumstances that I mea- 
 sured the distance, 450 paces. The object we had in view was 
 civill.y explained to him when at the Barrack, and a party of 
 fifty Goorkhas, under a native officer, was sent over, and took pos- 
 session without opposition. Th.e owner, indeed, — I believed 
 then, and do still — was well disposed towards us. The enemy 
 now hemmed us in on all sides, and we had a day's desultory 
 fig"hting- ; we held, however, full possession of the g-ardens in 
 front of our position. They occupied the town, and turned off 
 the water from the canal; and we at once became dependent for 
 our Supply on what we could obtain from the pools left in it, and 
 a very small quantity in a pit near the Barracks, from whence 
 earth had been dug* to make bricks. 
 
 I g-ave the armourer directions for the repair of the trail of the 
 g'un, but eventually at nigdit had to work at it with my own 
 hands, lie was no carpenter, thougdi clever in his profession, 
 and had no idea of the streng'th required in such a thing* as the 
 trail of a piece of artillery. We examined our ammunition 
 stores as well as our provisions. Of the latter we had about 
 seven days' supply. Of the former we had 200 rounds per 
 musket — less the quantity expended during- the previous day. 
 
 For the six-pounders we had orig'inally sixty rounds for each, 
 chiefly of round shot. 'For the eigditeen-pounder we had only 
 cig'ht round shot and one 21' pound howitzer cannister shot, which 
 tlie artillery officer, who sent' it out, specially explained, migdit 
 ''be altered to fit." This is ridiculous enougii, but it is fair to 
 say that the authority who ordered the g-un out, only sent it for 
 show, " for the moral effect." AYe had a considerable amount of 
 old lead dug' out of the targ-et butt. This was cast into bullets, 
 n:i(! jdaced in bag's made by the tailors and women of the reg'i- 
 ment, from the carpets of m}' tent, to serve in lieu of ordinary 
 g-rape'and cannister for the six and eig'hteen-pounders. Later, 
 when tliis supply beg-an to run short, we collected all our copper 
 money, and the nails and frag'ments of iron in the armourer's
 
 shop, and turned them to the same purpose. They did g-ood 
 service, especiallj the bullets. Later still, when it was apparent 
 that our bullocks would never be able to drag- our g^un, the drag' 
 chain was cut up into leng-ths, and bound up for shot. It m?de 
 very efficient practice among" the trees in front, so that the 
 enemy's marksmen dared not occupy them. The chain cut the 
 smaller branches like a knife. The blank musket cartridg-es, 
 provided for the instruction of recruits^ were broken up and 
 formed into cartridg-es for the g*reat g-uns. 
 
 But to return to our narrative of events. After a hard day we 
 had quiet; and Captain Codring-ton (who honoured me, as he 
 had always done, with perfect confidence, but on this occasion 
 was pleased specially to approve of my services), desired me to 
 write a report of what had passed, for the information of the 
 military authorities of Shah Shooja-'s force at Kabool. He added 
 that there was nothing" I could write of myself that he would not 
 sig"n. He had always been in the habit of writing" his own 
 letters on public affairs ; consequently, for want of practice, 
 writing" was irksome to me; of course, I could not have said 
 what he did in my favour in the despatch he subsequently wrote, 
 and wdiich I blushed to read. It was put m the post bag" destined 
 never to be delivered. I should value this document now more 
 than any honour earthly power could bestow upon me. 
 
 After dark, when it was possible to turn our attention from our 
 own immediate affairs to our comrades at Lug"hmanee, we sent 
 our people in that direction for information. It was not to be 
 expected that under our circumstances people would g'o unpro- 
 tected to such a distance as that place ; we could g-ain no tiding'S 
 — our own people were utterly weary, and had to feed. Except- 
 ing" the artillerymen, the g'arrison was composed almost entirely 
 of Hindoos. I do not think that there were more than three 
 Mahomedans in the ranks of the reg-iment. The Hindoos would 
 not, as a matter of course, eat food cooked by any but themselves 
 or their wives, and, therefore, had fasted all the day. Had they 
 been ]\Iahomedans, one servant mig'ht have cooked for a larg-e 
 number, and while toiling- and fig'hting', their food mig'ht have 
 been in course of preparation. I strayed out after dark — I think 
 it was about nine o'clock — in the direction of Lug-hmanee, with 
 only an orderly with me, in the hoi)C that some one mig'ht be 
 coming' iu from that direction. I had not g'one far when my 
 ([uick-sig-litod companion saw people approaching-. AVe were, of
 
 13 
 
 course, prepared for a speedy retreat; but were soon relieved by 
 the discovery that the party consisted of Major Pottin<^-er, the 
 Doctor, tlieir retainers, and our own Sepoys from Lug-hmanee. 
 Nearly all property had been abandoned. The Doctor had across 
 his shoulders the account book of the Political Ag-ent tied up in a 
 cloth; there were horses, spare guns, etc., but I think no 
 bag-g-ag-e. I quickly escorted them into our quarters, where they 
 were most heartily welcomed by Captain Codring-ton and Mr. 
 Rose. We all sat down and listened with intense interest to 
 their account of the events which had occurred, and which had 
 induced them to abandon their own place. Our own extreme joy 
 at having- them with us was, however, quickly dissipated when 
 we learned the fact that only a portion of our Goorkhas had re- 
 turned. Tor several nigiits I watched that road, in the hope that 
 some more of our men would turn up. They did so as late as 
 two nig-hts after, and my joy was such that, on meeting- them, I 
 embraced them, as 1houg-h they had been my own children. 
 Europeans who have been in India are, perhaps, alone capable of 
 judg-ing* of the exuberant feeling-s by which T must have been 
 actuated, to indulg-e in such an unwonted demonstration of 
 reg-ard. Yes, I hug-g-ed them as thoug'h they had been my chil- 
 dren. Having- thus broken off from my story, I may finish all I 
 have to say about them . The}' were men stationed on the towers 
 of Major Potting-er's castle, who either did not hear, or did not 
 understand the summons to come down, and who, thoug-h the 
 castle was taken, kept their position without food or water till it 
 was deserted by the Afg-hans, who would not venture to capture 
 them by force, as their position was only accessible by a ladder 
 and throug-h a trap door. It is probable that the interests of the 
 owner of the castle prevented their using- fire to expel their 
 enemy.* 
 
 Major Potting-erf has himself recorded the details of the 
 defence of Lug-hmanee. 
 
 The 5th November was a sad da.y for us; we had a most severe 
 stnig-g-le for existence, and thoug-h entirely successful, had to 
 mourn g-rievous loss. Early in the morning- the enemy mustered 
 to attack us on all sides. It seemed indeed as thoug-h the whole 
 male population of the countr}- had assembled ag-ainst us. I am 
 sure that I am within bounds when I say that on this and several 
 
 ''■^- K ii remarkable that they brought all their property tied on their back^. 
 -}- See Eyre's " Journal."
 
 14 
 
 subsequent days, we were besieg-ed by not less than twenty 
 thousand armed men. Had they been at all organized, or under 
 the direction of any man of ability, our destruction was certain. 
 An overruling" Providence, however, made their numbers of no 
 avail, and their utmost eflPorts fruitless. The very excess of their 
 numbers g-ave us nerve ; we also felt quite assured that relief 
 would be sent to us from Kabool when our situation became 
 known ; and we felt that the mere interruption of the daily post 
 would cause inquiry, even if Pottinger's messengers sent from 
 Lughmanee§ failed. We had not at this time the most remote 
 suspicion of what had taken place at Kabool. The troops there 
 were in no position to aid us. 
 
 On' the night of Major Pottinger's arrival a discussion took 
 place between Captain Codrington and myself as to the position 
 of the former, as it appeared not impossible that he might avail 
 himself of his superior military rank to assume commnnd of the 
 g'arrison, which he had joined. We concluded that by rules of 
 the service he could not do so : that we were still bound to act 
 under his instructions as Political Agent in our intercourse with 
 the natives, but tliat all military authority would continue wilh 
 the officers of the regiment. I mention this, as the gallant Major 
 has more than once had the credit of the defence of Char-ee-kar. 
 He did not require this addition to his laurels, and I have proof'^' 
 under liis own hand that he would not have deprived me of it. 
 
 The arrangements for the day^s defence at its commencement 
 were as follows : — I was sent to command the outpost in front. 
 These were chiefly three walled enclosures, the largest of which 
 contained two or three acres of gTOund. Pottinger volunteered 
 his services, and was placed in command of the g'uns ; Captain 
 Codrington commanded and supervised the whole. 
 
 In the course of the forenoon I received a message from 
 Codrington to the effect that Pottinger was wounded, and request- 
 ing me to come to him. Matters were too critical where I was 
 to allow of m}' leaving. I therefore wrote him an answer, 
 
 §It would seem from Sir W. Macnaghten's unfinished despatch llial on (he (ilh 
 he received a liurricd note wriltcn l)y Pottinger from Char-ee-kar. 1 do not know 
 anything of this, Iml (in \\\f Glli nr 7th I tltink he sent in two Goorkhas unainicd, 
 with a (h'spatch written in invisible ink between tlie lines of a native manuscript. 
 Tliese men got in safe, survived the campaign, and on my recommendation obtained 
 the Order of Meril. 
 
 * Appendix A.
 
 15 
 
 explaining* the case, on a piece of cartridg'et wrapper with char- 
 coal. Our circumstances were these. The bed of the canal 
 contained the only supply of water available, a little remaining 
 in pools here and there. The possession by the enemy of the en- 
 closures I have referred to, would entirely cut nsoflf from 1 his, 
 and ensure our rapid destruction. It was thei'eforc of vital im- 
 portance to retain these outposts. AVhilc I remained in any one 
 place, all was safe there ; but I was not long- absent from any one 
 position, before the men would g-radually drop away, and the 
 enemy would creep up and g-ain some advantag-e. Thus during- 
 the whole day we were eng-ag-ed in a perpetual strug-g-le to hold 
 our position. I think it was about noon that I received intelli- 
 g-ence of my beloved Commander haying- fallen, and another sum- 
 mons from him ; but it was not till near dusk that I could ven- 
 ture to leave my position. How shall I paint the short interview 
 which then took place ? AVc were united by the bonds of the most 
 sincere friendship and mutual esteem. The poor fellow was shot 
 throug-h the chest and scarce able to speak. He g-ave me his 
 watch — which I now wear, but I could not find it, as it had 
 slipped under him in bed; and when the stern calls of duty com- 
 pelled me to tear myself from him, he sent a servant after me 
 with his haversack, containing- his telescope and pistols, etc. 
 with directions to invest me with it. These touching- proofs of re- 
 g-ard at such a time move me to the heart even after this lapse of 
 time. 
 
 Salusbury, who had been shot throug-h the back on the pre- 
 vious day, had continued in a semi-conscious state, and expired 
 this afternoon. We kept our posts in spite of the fatig-ue, caused 
 by the extreme exertions the men had g-one through and the fre- 
 quent attacks of the enemy during- the nig-ht. 
 
 On the 6th they attacked us with renewed vig-our. The pos- 
 session of the larg-e g-arden in front was hotly contested, and the 
 enemy early in the day g-ot possession of it. I was not at 
 that post at the time, but shortly after, hearing' what had 
 occurred, determined if possible to recapture it. I went up the 
 bed of the canal, with a i'ew followers, to ascertain the number of 
 the enemy in possession. I had on the previous day caused 
 a portion of the wall next to our Barracks to be broken down, but 
 for its strong-th I would have destroyed the whole. There was a 
 
 V Hy a onions coincidence 1 mel at Biixa, Bootan, since the above was written, an 
 old sepoy who was with me at Char-ce-kar. and who mentioned this fact to me.
 
 16 
 
 g-ap about ten feet wide broken down to the beig'ht of a man's 
 chest. Up to this I g-ot, and from the silence within thougdit 
 the place empty. I was soon undeceived, for I found it fully oc- 
 cupied and a sentry standing* with his matchlock ready, a pace 
 or two in the rear of the g'ap: He at once fired at me, but with- 
 out wounding' me. In return I attempted to shoot him with a 
 double barrelled pistol by Staudenmeyer, which, with its fellow, 
 had cost me 30^. Both barrels missed fire. I then and there 
 threw both pistols away, and trusted to my sword, the scabbard 
 of which I had lost on the first day of the outbreak. As the enemy 
 at once rushed up to the breach and I had only the Bugle Major 
 with me, of whom more hereafter, I was compelled to take 
 ig"nobly to my heels ; however, the disgrace did not rest long" ; 
 having' collected a suflicient body of men, I easily retook the 
 place. I note here that the enemy never stood when deprived 
 of the protection of walls, even thoug-li they were ten to one, or 
 the disproportion was still greater. We could not, however, at- 
 tack them in the open plain, as our entire number was as nothing 
 to the circle hemming us in. Later in the day I left Serjeant 
 Major Byrne, a gallant soldier, in charge of the post; but shortly 
 after he was brought in mortally wounded I took his place, the 
 Doctor and Mr. Rose defending the Barrack ; and the enemy hav- 
 ing- towards evening retired a little from our outpost, I went out, 
 wishing to see if I could do anything' towards the town. I had a 
 very gallant little Goorkha orderly with me, we both kneeled 
 behind the bank of a ditch looking in the direction in which we 
 supposed the enemy to be. AVe had been in our po-ition but a 
 few minutes, when we were enlightened as to the enemy's 
 " whereabouts.'" My orderly^ was, like most of his race, a little 
 short man, his head and mine were both turned to the left. He 
 was on my left side, a rifle ball passed through his head, striking 
 me on the throat a little to the right side. We both fell : he stone 
 dead, and I feeling' paralyzed. I was not at all stunned. Our 
 men, who were watching us, thought both killed; my poor orderly 
 was dragged into the garden as men drag a wheel-barrow, the 
 poor man's legs being used in place of the handles aud his back 
 
 * This man's case was curious : four .of his brothers had been killed the previous 
 year at Bamean, and he had at the same time received a bullet in the head, which, 
 as there was but one hole was thought to have penetrated his brain; to the surprise 
 of every one he recovered, but as the brain was injured, and only covered by a thin 
 skin, he was thought unfit for further service, and only waited an opportunity to 
 return to India.
 
 17 
 
 as the wheel. The same process was commenced witli me ; btit 
 as I was alive and conscious, my objections I presume got me a 
 lift at the head. I well remember that when set down inside, I 
 came to the conclusion I was not "killed," that I sat up, and that 
 when the enemy advanced ag-ain and there was in consequence a 
 fresh alarm, I g-ot up, took my part in their repulse, and forg'ot 
 all about the matter. When nig-ht set in, the combat was for a 
 time clo.-jed. I went into the Barracks, and there meeting- the 
 Doctor, remembered that I was badly wounded. I learnt the sad 
 news of the death of my beloved Commander, and yet felt relief, 
 as 1 felt it would have been impossible to move him in any exi- 
 gency. The fact was kept secret, that the troops might not be 
 disheartened. When I had the Doctor apart, I told him that I 
 feared I was badly wounded. He took me into an inner room for 
 examination, that the disaster might not be known. 
 
 The Doctor removed my neck cloth with the utmost care, opened 
 my shirt collar which adhered slightly to my throat, and on look- 
 ing burst out laughing', telling me I was not wounded at all ! 
 The truth is that' partly owing to the fact that I had on an extre- 
 mely thick silk neckerchief, consisting of a square yard of Mool- 
 tan silk, and partly owing* to the obliquity with which the ball 
 struck me, I had only received a severe blow on the front of the 
 spine and an abrasion of the skin sufficient to let out a very little 
 blood. There was a red mark on the skin, as though a finger 
 smeared with blood had passed over it, and no more. 
 
 We were compelled to withdraw from the outposts in the even- 
 ing. Our numbers were much diminished, and the men quite 
 worn out with fasting and fatigue. To this was added the fact 
 that we had now no water in the canal to protect, and therefore 
 little object in maintaining the outposts in front of it. 
 
 At night secretly and silentl}' a grave was dug on the east (or 
 Nijrau side) of a small building we were erecting in the Barrack 
 Square as a magazine, and to it were committed the remains of 
 my dear comrades Salusbury and Codrington. I do not remem- 
 ber when or where Sergeant Byrne was buried. My friend's 
 grave was smoothed down, and straw burnt over it afterwards 
 to conceal it, as I wished to keep the sad news as much as possible- 
 from the men. We passed the night much as usual, but this 
 night and the following day there was an inexpressible feeling of 
 relief from the fact of our having given up all our outposts, except
 
 18 
 
 Khojeh Meer Khan's Fort. We had in fact not more and prohably 
 much less than half the space to defend. 
 
 The 7th was ushered in as previous days had been, and as the 
 remaining" days especially were. I will for once describe it. As 
 soon at it was broad day the enemy, in obedience to their drums 
 which had been beating' for an hour or two before, came forth 
 from the town and formed a perfect cordon round us. Therp was 
 a broad band on all sides, just out of musket shot, "^ from which the 
 enemy stole out marksmen under cover of little piles of stones, as 
 opportunity offered. The cover we had abandoned in front too, 
 was completely occupied; also the targ-et butt and the oratory. 
 It was now theliamazan,and in the evening- the enemy withdrew 
 to break their fast, leaving- heavy pickets of Cavalry and Infantry 
 on three sides of us and in the g-ardens in front. In the course of 
 the day we became aware of another loss. Shots beg-an to drop 
 into the interior of our square. At first these came palpably from 
 the posts in front through the open g-ate way, and here I have to 
 tell a sad tale which Mahomedans would consider especially illus- 
 trative of the doctrine of fate. Captain Codring-ton had a clerk, a 
 native of Chandernag-or in Beng-al. This man was a Hindoo, and 
 spoke Eng-lish and French fluently. He was a very g-ood man, 
 but eminently timid. Reg-ard for his old master had induced him 
 to come to Afg-hanistan. When fig-hting- beg-an, he disappeared, 
 nor did I hear anything- of him till this time. I heard he was 
 wounded, and went to see him. I found him crouched up in a 
 corner of an inner room, that is a room inside another, facing- the 
 gateway. He had taken refuge here, as the most safe position he 
 could think of. A bullet found him out, having pas.sed through 
 the Barrack gateway, and the two doorways of the apartments 
 opposite, into a remote corner. Another man, a tall, stout native 
 of the Punjab, a Hindoo I believe, named Hassa Sing, chowdree 
 of the bazar, or — to put the term in the most intelligible English 
 I can think of— "Clerk of the Market" of the Regiment, was also 
 mortally wounded in the stomach, in a room a little to the north. 
 Pottinger who was in an upper room opposite to the gateway, 
 was good enough to lend several rifles, his private property which 
 he had brought fromLughmanee, to our marksmen, and I think 
 it was at his suggestion that scaffolding- was erected in his room 
 and the upper part of the wall loopholed : also cover formed by 
 boxes to shelter one or two men placed on the roof. TI16 more 
 
 * Wo had only '• Brown Bess," with Hint locks.
 
 19 
 
 immediate remedy adopted was to liang- a curtain behind the 
 g-ateway. We then fixed the eig-htccn pounder there, and filled up 
 the space at the sides with the material provided for making- the 
 g-ate. But this was found to be a partial remedy, bullets pene- 
 trated the rooms on the south side of our Barracks thi'oug'h the 
 doorways. Tiie women inside were much alarmed, and the men 
 on the roofs of the houses were killed and wounded. It was 
 quickly found out that the fire proceeded from Khojeh Meer 
 Khan's castle which commanded the interior of our square, and 
 that our g-arrison there had succumbed. The only thing- we could 
 do was to put up the walls of the officers tents on the roofs of the 
 Barracks on the north and south sides, so as to prevent the eneni}^ 
 from taking- aim at the men behind them. -This dodg-e is known • 
 to the Japanese, and has been practised recently by them . It 
 proved a wonderfully efficient expedient, and althoug-h we could 
 not prevent some of the g-un bullocks and ponies being- killed, the 
 arrang'ement at once reduced our mortality. AVho would think of 
 • canvas stopping- a bullet ? It could not do so, but it stopped fir- 
 ing' ! Men would not fire aimlessly. 
 
 It appears that the Sdobadar commanding- the Goorkhas in 
 Khojeh Meer Khan's Port had been talked over by the Mahome- 
 dan Moonshee,"^ a native of Peshawar, into surrendering-. I don't 
 blame either; the Moonshee was probably much better informed 
 than we were of the actual state of affairs, and considered our case 
 hopeless. The Soobadar felt doubtless that he could not hold out. 
 The place was too larg-e in any case for efficient defence by fifty 
 men without water ; and forming-, as it did, the side of a narrow 
 street, it was easily mined by an enemy, who had cover up to the 
 door. The Soobadar, I believe, mig-ht have retreated to us with 
 some loss, and in failing- to do so only, I blame him ; the place 
 was untenable. He came over to us with some proposals for sur- 
 render, the reply to which was an invitation to the Chiefs to con- 
 fer. We had not heard of the cause of the outbreak, or the ob- 
 jects or wishes of the enemy, and hoped in any case to g-ain some 
 information, all other sources being- cut off. 
 
 On the 8th, two chiefs came forward to treat. They were, I 
 believe, natives of Nijrow. I took them to Potting-er to confer 
 with him, while I g-uarded ag-ainst what we so much feared — 
 treacher3^ I learned that Major P. had a long- conversation with 
 them, the upshot of which may be briefly summed up. They 
 
 *Sent to act as an inlerprctci'.
 
 believed they were acting- under orders of tiie King- to expel us."'^ 
 p. said, '' Produce the King-'s order, and we will at once evacuate 
 the country/^ I know no more of this than I heard from Major 
 Potting-er. The impression made on my mind was, that these 
 men had been deceived, and had acted in g-ood faith ; certain it 
 is that after this conference, the number of our besieg"ers was 
 visibly diminished. I will now enumerate all the other attempts 
 made to treat with us : all the persons wlio came were referred 
 to Major Potting-er. One came on behalf of a chief of Nijrow or 
 Tug-hao, and demanded g-uns, money, and I don't know what, to 
 be surrendered. After Potting-er had had his opportunity of 
 extracting- information, I told the man that I positively prohi- 
 bited any one coming- with such communications (which I per- 
 ceived reached the menf and were most demoralizing-), and I 
 said, "If you do come, it will be at your peril. I will hang 
 you.'' 
 
 Another day a chief, a g-enuine Afg-han of bold and defiant 
 manner, procured a cessation of firing-, and forced himself in to 
 have an interview with Potting-er, I don't know what passed. 
 But it was plain to me he came merely for the sake of spying-, I 
 showed him round the place, told him 1 fully saw his object, and 
 pointing- to the bastion the Afg-hans had blown i^p, showed him 
 how easy it was, and challeng-ed him to come up that way if he 
 could. He was the perfection of health and streng-th, but I don't 
 think he quite approved of the spirit he found inside our place. 
 
 The last offer to treat was conveyed by the man I had pro- 
 mised to hang- if he came ag-ain. I had then made up my mind 
 it was impossible to hold out, and felt it would be an useless act 
 of cruelty to put him to death. I, therefore, merely piit him in 
 ward, blindfolding- him with my own pocket handkerchief, be- 
 grimed with the smoke of ten day's fighting. I regret that a 
 Bactrian coin of Lysias, purchased a day before the outbreak, 
 remained tied up in the corner. We felt, I believe, one and all, 
 that it was utterly futile to treat with the enemy, and, further, 
 when we came to know what had happened at Kabool, that it 
 was our duty to hold out to the last, as our conquest would 
 
 ^-This is fully accounletJ loi' by the fact thai documents foiged by the rebels, l)ut 
 bearing the King's seal, were in circulation. 
 
 ^|-The men crowded to hear what passed, and those wlio could not get witliin 
 hearing, questioned those who had heard — discussion ensued which was unsuited 
 to our position.
 
 31 
 
 release the people who were besieg'ing* us, and leave them at 
 liberty to aid those already pressing- heavily on Kabool. 
 
 I think it was this afternoon we buried the dead. I most 
 fortunately insisted on the Doctor examining" every body before 
 it was buried. One fine young* man, who had laid a day or two 
 with the dead, having- been shot throug-h the throat, was found 
 to be quite alive and conscious. We buried forty-four in the 
 g-reat pit dug- for a tank, but those killed at Lug-hmanee, on the 
 retreat to Char-ee-kar, and at the outposts, lay unburied where 
 they fell. Foolishly we would not bury the horses and cattle 
 killed by the enemy's fire in the same place. They were quar- 
 tered" and thrown over the wall, in the hope that we would have 
 an opportunity of removing- them to a distance. This never 
 occurred, and the stench became abominable. 
 
 We were subjected every nig-ht to the annoyance of false 
 attaCiiS, the real nature of which I did not know at the time. 
 They were solely intended to wear us out. These facts I learned 
 afterwards when a prisoner. One favourite plan was to keep 
 drums beating- for hours, and a larg-e body of men in the bed of 
 the canal in front, shouting*, ''Dum-ee-Char-yar,''* and other 
 Afg-han war cries. I afterw^ards learnt that these were chiefly 
 unarmed peaceful men, residents of the town, who were com- 
 pelled to turn out thus, sore ag-ainst their will, wdiile the bulk of 
 the warriors took their rest. Eventually an occurrence took 
 place which put an effectual stop to this. 
 
 9th. I believe it was on this day that all hope of relief was 
 destroyed. About midday it was announced to me that a body 
 of men were visible coming- from the direction of Kabool. I at 
 once went to look out, and saw them sure enoug'h; but were 
 they the relief long- expected, or enemies ? Eelief certainly. I 
 could make them out distinctly with a telescope. The foremost 
 weve horsemen, our own 5th Cavalry, a fact rendered certain by 
 their white head dresses; we congratulated one another, and 
 tears of joy streamed from my eyes ; but, alas ! it soon appeared 
 we were deceived. The fantastic play of mirag-e had so acted on 
 a herd of cattle g-razing-, as entirely to deceive us. In the even- 
 ing- a Syud, I believe of the family at Istalif, came in, and g-ave 
 us the first news from Kabool, viz., that Burnes was killed, g-uns 
 
 *"The Life of the Four Fiiendri ; " that is, of the four companions of Mahomed.
 
 23 
 
 (Warburton's no doubt) had been captured, and that fig-hting' 
 occurred daily. 
 
 The enemy kept us closely besieg-ed. It was impossible on the 
 east side for anybody to show his head without getting* a volley. 
 In fact, it was a favourite amusement to put a Sepoy's hat (one 
 of the old Belltoppers) on a stick and show it above the wall, and 
 after the enemy had spent a g-ood deal of powder and shot, to 
 show them what they had been firing" at, giving- at the same time 
 a derisive shout. Exposing myself incautiously for a few 
 seconds, I received as I thought a ball in the elbow about the 
 ''funny bone;" my arm dropped so promptly that I did not 
 doubt but that the bone was smashed. Taking off my coat, how- 
 ever, it appeared that the limb had only been struck by a spent 
 ball, which left a painful bruise and nothing worse. Here I may 
 remark that we found the Afghans so short of lead that many of 
 their bullets w^ere only quartz pebbles covered with lead. This 
 day I shored up the flat roofs of the barracks, and cut open the 
 gorge of the bastion next the towai, and mounted a six-pounder 
 there .■^ The other one was brought into play down below. 
 There was a heavy picket of the enemy\s infantry and cavalry 
 kejJt by night at the back of our barracks, between us and the 
 hills, wdiich entirely defeated a project for getting at night a 
 supply of water from the Khoja-seh-Yaran spring. The subadar 
 of artillery undertook to dislodge them. lie brought one of our 
 field pieces to the side of the barrack square, furthest from that 
 on which the picket was, and mounting the barrack roof, with 
 the aid of a plumb line, he laid the gun in the same way tliat a 
 mortar is laid, and elevating it sufficiently, fired over the oppo- 
 site wall. Several shots were dropped in the middle of the 
 picket, the men of which were just making- themselves comfort- 
 able for the night. They were sent scampering, but only to take 
 up a worse position for our interests, viz., nearer to the coveted 
 source of water. 
 
 In the evening- some Afg-hans crept into the huts fronting the 
 south-east corner of our barracks, and commenced singing voci- 
 ferously. This was thought to be a piece of bravado. Some 
 thoug-lit they were mining;, i knew well they could not reach us 
 l)crorc day, and that they would not venture to continue there 
 (luring daylight, and that I could completely destroy their work 
 
 *lt had hoen kept boluw lor pussiljlu service outside ; tiie second one was not 
 lo bo depended upon.
 
 •23 
 
 at dawn if they were mining- ; so contented myself with visiting 
 the sentries perpetually, telling- them to keep a g-ood look out. 
 In each of the bastions a subadar was stationed, excepting- the 
 north-west one held by Mr. Rose. 1 kept m.y usual post seated 
 in a chair at the g-ateway, where I had a small reserve ready to 
 act in an}' direction as requisite ; the remainder of the reg'iment 
 who survived unwounded were perpetually on duty on what I 
 may call the walls — as many as could lay in each bastion; the 
 others on the flat roofs, above which the walls rose fromeig-hteen 
 inches to three feet. The lowest parts were slig-htly protected by 
 stone.s and billets of wood placed upon the top. After midnig-ht 
 there was a sudden explosion, alarm, and a general firing- by the 
 enemy. It appears they had excavated into the south-east bas- 
 tion and blown up the front of it. There was no mining- from the 
 huts, but a man had boldly sat at the foot of the bastion and dug- 
 a hole into it, which he loaded with powder, tamped and fired. 
 The sing'ing- was intended to distract attention from his opera- 
 tions. The dig-g-ing- was distinctly heard by the women in the 
 barrack below, but the subadar neg-lected tlie information con- 
 veyed to him. The men instantly deserted that quarter, and it 
 was believed the enemy were among- us, but I g-ot together the 
 reserve, and in a minute or two was in the breach. I found that 
 it was unoccupied, and quickly barricaded it, so as to render it 
 as strong as before The enemy had made no attempt to take 
 advantage of what had been done. Had they advanced with a 
 storming party, the place would have been theirs in all proba- 
 bility, instead of which they merely indulged in a desultory fire. 
 After this a piece of lighted port-fire was dropped over the walls 
 at each bastion every half hour, so as to enable us to see what 
 was going on below. 
 
 10th. Since the supply of water failed from the canal and we 
 had been confined to the Ijarracks, the practice was to open the 
 Postern Gate, a small, narrow one, for.a short time after dark, 
 and allow the garrison to go out to get their supply from the pit, 
 where it had been received for building purposes before the 
 siege, and from the hollows round the walls where earth was 
 obtained for their construction. This measure I had to superin- 
 tend myself, as from the narrowness of the entry and the eager- 
 ness of the people, there was great danger of a crush, and much 
 of the water was spilt. This evening the last drops of water
 
 u 
 
 remaining" were collected in pitchers, and broug-ht in and placed 
 under sentries in a room. 
 
 lltli. Water was served out to fig-liting- men only. iVt first, 
 referring" to the fact that the corps was composed entirely of 
 Hindoos, I ordered a native officer to serve it out; but quickly a 
 cry of partiality was raised, and the men insisted that I should 
 serve it out. I did serve out water on this and the succeeding 
 day as far as it would g'o, about half a tea cup* full to each man. 
 Those who know Hindoo prejudices on the subject, and remem- 
 ber that every man, from the Brahmin and Rajpoot downward, 
 lost his caste by thus receiving' water in a tea cup from my hand 
 will be able to realize in a measure the amount of suffering* 
 which the men had underg-one to induce them to make such a 
 sacrifice. Yet all appeared staunch, I heard no murmuring" 
 One of our Mahomedan g-unners had deserted it is true. The 
 rest, to be sure, had asked for their pay on the pretext that they 
 had not the means of buying- food at the reg-imental shops ; but I 
 had a plain answer : I had not received it ; and, to obviate dif- 
 ficulty, ordered credit should be given them. I allowed them 
 and the Sepoys g-enerally as much mutton as they could eat from 
 the officers' mess flock ; little was used, as they said it only made 
 them more thirsty. I learnt afterwaids that many sucked the 
 raw flesh to assuage their thirst. Fig-hting- is at all times dry 
 work, but figiiting" without water is nearly impossible. The 
 misery was g-reat; the Hindoos, accustomed to daily abluiions, 
 had not bathed since the commencement of the affair. Even at 
 the time that we were still unconfined to our barracks, food was 
 only obtainable at irregular intervals ; our voices were hoarse, 
 our lips cracked, our faces beg-rimed with dust and smoke, and 
 our eyes blood-shot. I do not remember to have sat down to' a 
 meal after the evening on which Pottingcr joined us, my food 
 being" chiefly dried mulberries obtained from the Fakeer's Tukeea 
 in front, or fried flour brought to me by the Sepoys. Truly we 
 were one. Tliere was, however, an article of diet without 
 which I don't think I could have held out. Each morning before 
 daylight Captain Codrington's servant brought me a cup of tea. 
 The last was, I think, on the morning of the 12th, and was ivam 
 a small vessel of water which Mr. Rose had secured. This was 
 the sole source of supply for himself, Major Pottingcr, the Doclor, 
 •^Much of this was mere imid.
 
 Z5 
 
 and myself, and certainly for two days, if nok three, beyond the 
 small cup of tea i tasted no fluid. 
 
 Iq the evening- 1 sent out a party* by stealth to endeavour to 
 g-et a supply of water by passing- between the enemy's pickets, 
 and g-etting- in rear of the town, to the spot where the water from 
 the canal which had been cut ran down. They g'ot a little water, 
 but alarmed the enemy, and lost the g-reater part of what they 
 were bring-ing- in ; what came was at once seized and drank by 
 whoever could g-et hold of it. One or two of the party were 
 reported to have been captured by the enemy. 
 
 12th. We were in every way, as mig-ht be supposed, much 
 worse off. Since rain fell on the nig'ht of the 5th, the weather, 
 especially at nig'ht, had become much colder, the mountain tops 
 being- covered with snow. Our men were almost entirely worn 
 out, the enemy used all sorts of contrivances to dispirit us. Scal- 
 ing- ladders were for several days paraded round us, thoug-h in 
 several places the enemy could g-efc in without using- them, as 
 they could reach the top of the wall from the outside with their 
 hands. There was usually one g-eneral attack per diem, and it 
 did not fail to-day ; many men were absent from their posts, and 
 I had to drive them up from their barracks. During- the fig-ht 
 some slunk away ag-ain, and among- these a native officer. I 
 discovered him in the corner of a room, behind a screen, with 
 fire in a chftfing- dish burning- before him, mumbling- ''Muntras" 
 or mag-ic formulae. It was needful to make an exampfe, so I 
 pulled him out by the collar, tore his coat off, and set him to 
 work as a coolie with the camp followers. AYe were attemj)ting- 
 to fill up the unfinished mag-aziue with earth, intending- to con- 
 vert it into a Cavalier, on which to mount our second g-un, so as 
 to command the breach made by the enemy in our south-east 
 bastion. I was soon oblig-ed to g-ive it up, and admit the validity 
 of the excuse made by the poor people, who said they could not 
 work without water. 
 
 I org-anized an expedition to attempt again to g-et water this 
 evening-, and intended myself to command it; but the native 
 ofiicers of the corps conjured me not to g'o out, as they said, if 
 
 * This expedition was prompted by tlie fact tliat some liad let tliemselves down 
 over tlie walls, whence they had stolen to the back of the town and obtained water. 
 The measure was so bold that, but for the success of these adventures, I should not 
 have thought of it.
 
 anything* happened to me, they had no* one to look to for g-uid- 
 auce. I felt compelled to g'ive in, and yet, feeling- the absolute 
 necessity of keeping- the men in strict control, I placed the expe- 
 dition under the orders of Mr. Eose and our best native officer. 
 I indicated the points they were to hold till the water carriers 
 returned, and did all in my power to ensure success. The urg-ent 
 necessity for absolute siLence was pointed out to all, and I had 
 g'ood hope that we migdit succeed in getting- enoug'h water to last 
 for a day or tw^o. After a long- and anxious interval we were 
 amazed by firing- close to us — a volley at the building- intended 
 for a mess house and another at the canal, followed by scattered 
 firing- in the same direction, and then from the enemy's pickets. 
 By-and-bye the detachment returned, rampant with triumph, but 
 without water, or scarcely any. Whatever quantity came was at 
 once consumed or disposed of privately. Rose brought two stan- 
 dards captured from the enemy. The first thing I learnt was, 
 that my plan hail entirely failed. The posts indicated by me were 
 not taken up, which, considering that all were suffering the 
 agonies of thirst, was not to be wondered at. All rushed to the 
 w^ater, which was reached without detection, they then drank 
 their fill, and instead of following up the plan laid down, which 
 might still have been adopted in part, conceived the idea of fall- 
 ing- on the pickets of the enemy in front of our position. This 
 view was carried out, and I believe the picket at the mess house 
 and at the canal were attacked at the same time. It was found 
 that the whole of them had gone to sleep, without planting a 
 sentry; they were in fact enjoying their first sleep after a day's 
 hard work and a heavy meal, for it was now the Eamzan, during 
 which they fasted all day till the sun went down. Poor people ! 
 to the majority it was also their last sleep. I was told that the 
 mess house being- -surrounded and aim being taken, the first 
 volley was fired, and those not killed by it were bayonetted. 
 
 Almost simultaneously a similar event took place at the canal, 
 the party near which were chiefly mere ''claqueurs," driven 
 there to annoy us by yells : some of these escaped. However, 
 the enemy received a terrible blow, but the success appeared to 
 me quite useless. The object for which the party was sent forth 
 had entirely failed, and we were dying of thirst. I had a horror 
 of the destruction of even such men as the Afghans were by such 
 
 vC-Thc naly icinainingotliccr of llic roginuMU, Mr. Rose, wa.s very young; he had 
 joined the service but a few months previously.
 
 37 
 
 means. It seemed unmanly. To be sure they would only have 
 been too giad to treat us in the same way, if they^' could. Our 
 blackt bearded visitor who was a Chief of some distinction, was 
 among- the dead ; g-reat lamentation was made over him next day. 
 13^/*. The failure of our attempts to obtain water, except for 
 the few who went forth, made it manifest we could no long-er 
 liold out. All the hope we ever had of. relief from Kabool had 
 long" since vanished ; and it was clQ^r we must either die where 
 we were or effect some chang-e in our circumstances. As our po- 
 sition was palpably untenable, the probability of having* to effect 
 a retreat had been often in our minds from the first ; but it was 
 combined with the hope of assistance from Kabool ; for no one 
 needed to be told that a retreat over from forty to fifty miles of 
 country in open rebellion was impossible to people so out-num- 
 bered that they could not show their noses outside their Barracks. 
 AYe had no means of carrying- our wounded, and so early as the 
 date of the death of the g-allant Codring-ton I felt inexpressible 
 relief from that event, as I was well aware that in the event of it 
 being" necessary to remove him, he could not bear the motion of 
 the sing-le doolee or litter we had for carrying" the w^ouuded. 
 There were a g-reat number of considerations which negratived 
 even an attempt at retreat till this day. In the forenoon, however, 
 the native Officers in a body came towards me. I had noticed 
 whisperings and consultations in twos and threes among- them 
 and did not require any one to tell me what it meant. As they 
 drew near, I understood their errand only too well. They respect- 
 fully announced that " something" must be done," as it was impos- 
 sible the}^ could hold out an.y long-er without water. T had quite 
 made up my mind too on the subject, and in reply pledg-ed my 
 life on the attempt to lead them to water that nig"ht. Now for 
 the first time a council was held in the room where Potting-er lay 
 wounded, at which the Doctor and Mr. Rose, I believe, assisted. 
 The question of retreat or no retreat was not discussed. The only 
 alternative to my mind was to attempt to seize by surprise some 
 native castle in which we mig'ht expect to find some food and 
 have acces.-i to water, but I could not call to mind a sing-le one 
 from which the supply could not be cut off. All were ag"reed 
 tiuit our only chance, hopeless as it seemed, lay in attempting- 
 
 "- 1 romenil)er in the spring an English soldier Avas shot at night, as he lay asleep in 
 his tent amidst his comrades at the CampatSeeah Sung near Kabool. This was done 
 in the mere wantonness of hate. 
 
 ■y Shah Mahmood.
 
 to reach Kabool. If we g'ot a g-ood way, it was thoug-ht possible^ 
 relief mig-lit meet us and lielp us in. The route was the only 
 question of debate. The direct route was the most difficult and 
 one upon which opposition was most certain ; for we had to pass 
 several fortified villag-es, if we went by it. My own acquaintance 
 with the country was imperfect, but I was disposed to take a line 
 to the left or S. E. which, it seemed to me, would bring* us inlo 
 broken g-round, where the enejpy's horse could not act ag-ainst us, 
 and from whence we mig-ht possibly effect a junction with Colonel 
 Sale's Brig-ade, supposed to be in that direction. Potting-er and 
 the Doctor, who both had seen much more of the country than I 
 had, were in favour of adopting- a line of road skirting- the moun- 
 tains, as it would g-ive, in the event of our being- cut up, the best 
 chance of escape to the women and children and camp followers, 
 who mig-ht perhaps be able to clamber the sides of the hills and 
 find shelter among- the rocks. There was another recommend- 
 ation to this route; it would probably be unwatched, and it 
 abounded in water ; we knew too that there were some well dis- 
 posed to us in the direction of Istalif. I fully concurred in these 
 arg-uments, and it was understood that we would adopt the hill 
 foot route. Our plans it was thoug-ht prudent to conceal as far as 
 possible. Spikes were ordered to be made for the g-uns, but the 
 armorer who made them, protested that they would not break, as 
 he had no liquid in which to cool them. I sug-g-ested the use of 
 g-hee, not knowing- at that time the effect of oil on steel. The 
 Doctor urg-ed me to save my Bactrian coins. I had a valuable 
 collection, which I could have conveniently carried in my pockets, 
 but as I had adopted it as a principle that all bag-g-ag-e was to be 
 abandoned, I could not in my own person set the example to the 
 contrary. 
 
 After what has been already recorded, I do not think there are 
 many persons who would want explanation of the state which 
 rendered retreat necessary ; but I will nevertheless briefly reca- 
 pitulate our condition. On the £nd November we had about 
 seven hundred and forty men, more than half of whom were re- 
 cruits, and who had never been under fire. We had since then 
 lost our Commandant, Quarter Master, Serjeant Major and, I be- 
 lieve, fully 100 privates killed ; we had our Quarter Master Ser- 
 jeant and eig-ht barrack rooms full of wounded, probably not less 
 than two hundred, we had lost fifty by capture. This is the 
 lowest estimate, so that there could not remain more than three
 
 29 
 
 hundred and ninety worn out men under arms. AYe had over 
 one hundred women and forty children, with perhaps one hundred 
 camp followers of sorts. The whole of this party was totally des- 
 titute of water. At the commencement we had only by estimate 
 seven days' provisions,but our store was by no means exhausted."^' 
 It probably would have carried us a week farther. Our ammu- 
 nition had been at starting- 200 rounds per man, but had been 
 husbanded with the g-reatest care ;«no such random firing- was al- 
 lowed as I have repeatedly seen since, and our store was there- 
 fore still respectable ; we had but little ammunition for the g-uns, 
 one of which had broken down thrice ; and our muskets were so 
 foul, that it was with difficulty balls could be forced into them; 
 even urine could not be obtained to wash them out. We were 
 closely besieg-ed by overwhelming- numbers, and could not show 
 ourselves outside in daylight ; all hope of relief had vanished ; 
 and to us remained alone the choice of death, surrender to a noto- 
 riously faithless enemy, or the attempt to join by stealth our com- 
 rades at Kabool, I had received from two men, the armorer and 
 the native doctor, one a native of the Punjab and the other of 
 Cashmere, hints that treachery was brewing- among- the g-unners; 
 but I could g-et no tang-ible explanation from them of the g-rounds 
 for their supposition. The g-unners had behaved as well as men 
 could do. They foug-ht bravely, and had lost twelve men out of 
 fifty-six, their entire number. As I then said, they were as my 
 rig-ht arm to me ; I could not therefore either punish them on 
 vag'ue suspicion, nor could I even turn them out of the barracks, 
 possibly to increase the enemy's ranks, especially as their accusers 
 had shewn no courag-e themselves. Indeed the native doctor was 
 reputed an arrant coward. I did what I deemed rig-ht, and g-ave 
 private instructions that a vig'ilant eye should be kept on them. 
 The i^recise nature of our expedition to take place in the 
 evening- was for g-ood reasons kept secret ; but I had openly 
 pledg-ed my word to do something-, and the necessity for making- 
 spikes for the g-uns, in anticipation of having- to abandon them , 
 would have betrayed our objects, if all were so dull as not to be 
 able to form a pretty g-ood g-uess. 'We never had draug-ht car- 
 riag-e for all three g-uns, and as the bullocks had been entirely 
 without water from the 6th, if not before, and altog-ether without 
 food for five daj'S, as indeed all our beasts were, it was hopeless 
 to expoct them to do service. The armorer had just shown me 
 * Chiefly from want of water to cook with.
 
 30 
 
 the spikes, and explained his difficulty about rendering' them 
 brittle, and a cessation of firing* occurring* at this time, I went up 
 to the ]^, E. Bastion to see " what was up." Ensigm Rose was 
 with me, and also the Subadar of artillerj'. I saw a native of 
 India, with clean clothes and combed hair, coming* towards the 
 g-ateway. I asked, observing* he was an artilleryman, whether 
 he was the man who had deserted, or whether he was the 'inan 
 cut off in the attempt to obtain a supply of water. The Sabadar 
 at once g*ave answer that he was the deserter. In any case it 
 was plain that the enemy had sent him, probably to offer terms ; 
 and as I was quite determined not to make any, being* completely 
 assured that none made with us would be kept, I felt it of import- 
 ance to prevent his holding* any communication with the men 
 At this time I was unarmed. I met the man as he came in, and 
 seized him by the collar with my left hand as he attempted to 
 pass me. Instantly he threw himself on the g*round, I still hold- 
 ing* him ; this reduced me to a stooping* posture, in which I 
 received a tremendous blow on the neck, which I conjecture was 
 followed by one or two more. I started, letting* g*o my man, and 
 turning* round, at the same time feeling* a sharp pain in my rig*ht 
 wrist ; I saw the blood spouting* in a long* jet from it, and the 
 Subadar g*laring* at me like a demon, holding* a sword with both 
 hands, and in the act of striking* at me ag*ain. All this was the 
 work of an instant. I had the whole of the muscles* on one side 
 of the back of my neck severed, a severe cut into the rig'ht 
 shoulder joint, another in the rig-ht wrist, nearly severing* my 
 hand, and a fourth in the left fore arm, splintering* the bone. I 
 retreated up a ladder to the roof of the barracks, and shouted 
 *' Treacher}','-' calling* on the men to fire on the g*unners, who 
 were escaping* en masse. I, however, after having* the limb 
 with its spouting' artery bound, found myself so faint from loss of 
 blood that I could not stand. I was conducted between two men 
 into the lower storey of the building*, in which was Pottiiig*er, 
 and was laid on a bed. The enemy made a most vig*orous attack 
 on all sides. Potting*er had himself carried to the g'ate, where 
 the Doctor, with one or two men, vig*orously worked the eig'Iiteen- 
 pounder, and by dark the enemy had been completely repulsed. 
 I heard afterwards that the artiller^^men, seeing* our affairs were 
 desperate, thoug*ht it best to make terms for themsclres. The 
 
 *A bad tailor, who luul luade one of Ihe most prodigious collars ever seen, was 
 probably the uninli;ntioaal means of saving my life.
 
 81 
 
 arrang-ement was, the.y were to kill me as a proof of their zeal, 
 and to g-o over to the enemy, who were to make a g-eneral attack 
 in the confusion which would ensue, and take the place by escal- 
 ade. It was expected no one would remain to work the gnins ; 
 on this point, and in the anticipated success, calculations failed. 
 It appears that from some sig"n the Subadar understood all wag 
 settled. He, therefore, when I left his side, snatched a sword 
 from the hands of Ensig-n Rose, and followed me. I presume, 
 when the man I had seized, whose face was toward the Subadar. 
 saw him coming- at- me, he threw himself down to be out of the 
 way of the blow. 
 
 Major Potting-er, the Doctor, and Mr. Rose, after driving- off 
 the enemy, attempted to org-anize a retreat, but this was out of 
 the question ; none of them but Eose belong-ed to the corps, and 
 he was too j'oung- and unused to command. The men, women, 
 and camp followers beg-an to load themselves with whatever they 
 could find. A Goorkha Jemadar served the cash^ in the reg-i- 
 mental chest out to whoever would take it. The Doctor spiked 
 the g-uns, and it was proposed to blow up the mag-azine, but I 
 neg-atived this, for two reasons. It would be sure to arouse the 
 attention of the enemy, and thereb}- defeat our attempt to e.scape 
 secretly ; and probably it would destroy our wounded, who were 
 unable to move. I have»said, discipline was at an end, but still 
 there was some attempt made at order. It was arrang-ed that 
 after dark the force should be divided : one half to leave by the 
 main entrance, and the other half by the postern g-ate ; both 
 parties were to unite on the parade g-round, and proceed in silence 
 by the route previously determined. When all was nearly ready 
 the Doctor came to me. An assistant made a lig-ht with a piece 
 of oiled rag-, and the Doctor amputated m^^ right hand at the 
 WTist joint, rapidh' sewing- the skin tog-ether with three stitches 
 of a needle and thread. As may be supposed, I was dreadfully 
 faint, but not a drop of liquid of any kind was to be found, some 
 ether excepted. Tinctures of all sorts had disappeared from the 
 Hospital, the smell of the ether luckily had been too powerful, 
 and a drink of it revived me. I was put on horseback and led 
 out by the postern, a man holding- me on either side, to the par- 
 ade g-round. There we waited unavailing-ly for the other party ; 
 
 *The man's name was Hunooman Singa Jemadar. He had been from Nepal to 
 Pekin with tribute. He measured out the money with a brass lotah or drinking 
 vessel. He was a brave soldier.
 
 sa 
 
 a man was sent back to bring- them on ; he did not, I believe, re- 
 turn. While waiting', an infant beg"an to cry ; the Doctor said he 
 would silence it, and he did so for ever, I was told, by dashing- 
 it on the ground.'^ He went back himself in search after the mis- 
 sing* men but did not return to us. At last we started, Potting-er 
 leading-. I continued to be held by a man either side of my horse, 
 with a cushion under my chin to keep my head up. After trarel- 
 ling* about four miles, we came to water. It was difficult to g-et 
 the party to move at all from this, and I was told that many 
 never did so. 
 
 Potting-er was fully impressed with the fact that in speed and 
 secrecy alone had we a chance of escape ; he therefore urg-ed tiie 
 party on. Kose and the Quarter Master Serg-eant Hanrahan (who 
 had recoved from the wound received on 4tli November) were to 
 bring- up the rear, but this was found impossible. We waited 
 and halted repeatedly, with the result of constantly diminishing- 
 numbers. At I think about 1 a. m. we heard firing- to the left at 
 Ivalabag'h on the main road, which I afterwards ascertained arose 
 from the detection of the party which had failed to join us on 
 leaving- the barrack. I think it was some time before we g-ot to 
 Istalif, that we missed Ensig-n Eose, Serjeant Hanrahan and the 
 men with them. Potting-er's object was to draw them on as fast 
 as he could, and to show the way, waititig- occasionally in difficult 
 places for them to come up. We had travelled about tweuty 
 miles, when we missed them, and all endeavours failed to disco- 
 ver them ag-ain.t It was clear that they had taken some other 
 path, so having- no choice, we pushed on, our party diminihed to 
 seven or eigdit. We stumbled on a water mill, with the miller 
 awake and busy, he too readily came out with a welcome which 
 we dared not return, but on the contrary avoided. Westrug-g-led 
 on, continually losing- our way in the dark till day beg-an to dawn, 
 when we found ourselves under the walls of a fortified villag-e, 
 beyond which was a naked hill. The majority of our party were 
 in favour of taking- to this hill, for the sake of concealment, I 
 felt very strong-l}^ however, that when our evacuation of Char- 
 ee-kar was known, the enemy would be sure to look for us in such 
 
 ■5^ This was confirmed by an eye-witness in '187'!. 
 
 -|-Pnttinger feelings and mine probably differed. He had been nine days in bed 
 and was consequcnlly cool. I had been the whole of the time in constant excitement. 
 He did not belong to the Regiment. I did. Nothing woid(lha\e induced me to 
 part company with my men as long as they would follow me. He now looked u])on 
 them as what they really were, a disorderly mob, useless as soldiers. This is 
 written with reference to remarks in his narrative.
 
 33 
 
 a situation. I recommended we should take shelter in some ravi- 
 nes channeling- the otherwise almost level plain near the villag'e, 
 where 1 felt assured the enemy would never dream of looking- for 
 us. It was indeed fortunate that we did so. for what I anticipated 
 occurred; the enemy were seen hunting-, and firing- at some of onr 
 men on the hill side, while we lay at hand closely concealed. 
 Once indeed a party came up to within two hundred yards of us, 
 but turned back without seeing- us. Our party now consisted of 
 Major Potting-er, myself, the Major's Goorkha"^ Monshee named 
 Mohun Beer, all mounted, my orderly Maun Sing-, and a Reg-i- 
 mental sutler on foot. I must not, however, forg-et Major Pot- 
 ting-er's bull terrier, of whose barking- 1 was apprehensive when 
 the enemy approached us, but who was, I was assured, too tired 
 to bark. During- the nig-ht I had drunk water liberally, and I 
 believe about half a pint of ether. During- this terrible day the 
 larg-est share of the little water with our partj-, was g-iven to me. 
 I had also some dried mulberries to eat. As soon as it was well 
 dark, we pushed on ag-ain, Potting-er g-uiding-; we passed close to 
 Killa Iltifat, a castle wliere the dog-s alone took notice of us, 
 and crossed an open plain to the last rang-e of hills dividing' us 
 from Kabool. Now I knew of only two roads crossing- it, both of 
 which were sure to be watched ; but Pottiag-er, who had fre- 
 quently passed and repassed, knew of a g-oat path between them, 
 but he had never trodden it, and in any case it would be a toug-h 
 job for a horse to cross the hill by it. We pushed on for this 
 path, but failing- to find it, attempted the hill side. AVeak as I 
 was from los.s of blood, I could not keep my seat, and several 
 times slipped off ; on the last occasion I was very badly bruised 
 by the stones on which I fell. It appeared to me hopeless to 
 think of g-etting- further. I therefore entreated Potting-er to leave 
 me to my fate, and attend to his own safety. He most nobly and 
 g-enerously refused to do so. He told me to lie quiet and rest 
 myself, while he made search for a path. This he found, and 
 then rested for a while himself. After about an hour's delay, I 
 was remounted, and we succeeded in crossing- the mountain, but 
 at the foot of it to our horror found ourselves in an encampment 
 of nomad Afg'han shepherds, whose black g'oat's hair tents we 
 could not see till we were among- them. Their dog-s barked 
 furiously, but luckily the nig-ht was bitterly cold, and no one 
 had the courag-e to face it. There were two ways from this 
 
 ■5!- His slalcnient to Ihu late Sir II. Laurence is appeaded.
 
 34 
 
 camp, we chose one to the rig"ht; we hoped by skirting* the hike 
 which here hiv between us and Kabool, to g'et into the canton- 
 ments at the side furtliest from the town, but Potting'er could not 
 "find the way, so we were compelled to push on for Deh-Afg-hana, 
 a larg-e castle in the suburbs of the town of Kabool, under the 
 walls of which we needs must pass. There were sentries on the 
 towers who challeng-ed us. Potting^er answered in Persian, 
 strongly flavoured with a Milesian accent, that we were the ser- 
 vants of a native chief whom he named. The answer was not 
 quite satisfactory, for the sentry said, "Stop, Til come down." 
 Our side replied, '' All rig-ht," and calculating' when our friend 
 had commenced his descent, we pushed on as fast as we could 
 get oar horses to g'o. AVe got into the town, and in the outskirts 
 dropped our sutler, at the semi-fortified house of one of the 
 Hindoo Shikarporee merchants. He, poor man, to be sure, had 
 had no fighting, but he had been several days without water. 
 He had with him a large bundle of property, which he conveyed 
 into his stronghold. Maun Sing, my orderly, who was also on 
 foot, declined the option of remaining here, and determined to 
 share the remaining danger with us. We thought of making for 
 the Bala Hissar, where we hoped to be received by the king, but 
 for some reason changed our plan. We passed nearly through 
 the city, meeting- only one single person awake, a fakeer, smok- 
 ing his pipe, who gave us his blcssing-ns we passed. AYe got 
 into the path leading to the cantonment, and were near the end 
 of it, when, to our horror, we found the open shops on either side 
 of the way, which was not -twenty feet wide, filled with men. 
 We were called upon to stop, but did not. Then arose a cry of 
 ''Stop them," "Infidels," etc., etc., followed up by a fusillade 
 which did no injury to any one but perhaps themselves Truly 
 in this, as in so many other instances, Providence protected us, 
 for if any had had the courage to put out his hand and seize our 
 bridles, we had been lost. The fire put a little spirit into our 
 weary animals, who took us clear of them. ]\[aun Sing kept up 
 with us. And here I must correct a mistake into which Pottinger 
 has fallen in his account. lie says Maun Sing's accoutrements 
 were hid by a Posteen or sheep's-skin cloak ; this is a mistake, 
 of which I was further assured by Mnnn Sing himself five or six 
 years afterwards. A man could not possibly have made such a 
 march, still less run for his life, clothed in .such a garment. I 
 believe it was Maun Sing's cross belts and breast plate that first
 
 35 
 
 disclosed who we were. Our troubles were not yet at an end. 
 The firing- had roused the Eng'lish g-arrison, and we were chal- 
 leng-ed by sentries in a larg-e fort to our rig'ht, then in suceession 
 by those to onr left in the cantonment field work, and we had no 
 small .lilficulty in passing- the jealous and inexorable sentries 
 round two and a half sides of it to the only g-ate by which we 
 could g-et access. Here I was taken off my horse, and for the 
 first time had my wounds dressed in the g-nard-room. Then I 
 felt that if it had been to save me from immediate death, I could 
 not have g'one ten yards further. We were, to use the words of 
 Eyre, received ''as men who had risen from the dead.'' 
 
 Thoug-h this is intended to be a personal narrative, I cannot 
 refrain from g-iving- some account of the fate of my comrades. I 
 enjoyed peculiar opportunities of learning- particulars from the 
 Afg-hans themselves during- the many months spent in captivity 
 among- them ; and also from having- collected the survivors of the 
 corps in 1842, and conducted them back to India. 
 
 It appears then that the Doctor, when he went back to the 
 Barrack from the parade g-round, found that the party which 
 should have joined us, had taken the direct road to Kabool ; he 
 joined them and, I presume, failed to indue© the men to return. 
 The party was fired upon while passing- throug-li the fortified 
 villag-e of Kala Bag"h at about 1 a, m., and this we heard. They 
 strug-g-led on till dayiig-ht, when they had afig-ht with the enemy 
 crossing- a hill I believe at Ak-Serae, where the man who g-ave 
 me these particulars was badly wounded with a spear and taken 
 prisoner. All the rest of this party, excepting- the Doctor, were 
 here either killed, or wounded and taken prisoners. The Doctor, 
 who was mounted, manag-ed to g-et clear, and by nine or ten 
 o'clock had g-ot nearly to the foot of the last rang-e between 
 Char-ee-kar and Kabool ; the rang-e which we crossed next nig-ht. 
 Had he succeeded in ascending- it, he would have found the 
 pass occupied, but he was not fated to do so. He met some 
 labourers from the town. They surrounded him. He g-ave 
 one his horse, another his sword,"^ a third his pistols, and in 
 fact diverted himself of all he had, walking- ©n afoot. His 
 
 *This sword had belonged to Lieutenant Rattray, killed at Char-ee-kar, legarding 
 which there is a story told by Poltinger, which 1 saw in one of the English papers 
 in 1843. Rattray bought this sword Irom the widow of its last owner, who met a 
 violent d(;ath. Tiie tradition was that every owner, from the time of Nadir Shah 
 in ll'iO, had met with a violent death. It was offered to me, being a fine Damas- 
 cus blade, but I declined to have an article with such an ominous legend attached 
 to it. The Doctor in conse({uencii kept it for himself.
 
 36 
 
 horse no doubt had g-iven in. One of the wood-cntters followed 
 him, and, to use his own words as communicated to me, felled 
 him with his axe '' for the love of God. " 
 
 Ensig-n Eose and Serjeant Hanrahan, with those men who 
 adhered to them, as has already been narrated, followed the same 
 track as ourselves, or ne?irly so, as far as Istalif ; they kept to the 
 foot of the western hills, and by morning- had g-ained the Mama 
 Khatoon pass in advance of us, to our rigdit, when they were 
 surrounded and cut up. All accounts I have received, agree in 
 stating- that they made a g-allant defence^ and foug-ht hard for 
 their lives. I think up to the time of the retreat of the army from 
 Kabool, only one, or at the outside two, of the corps had found 
 their way into cantonment; but one man, Motee Earn Havildar, 
 actually found his way past Jellalabad to India.f 
 
 After General Pollock's advance, I collected 165 men, survivors 
 of the Reg-iment, who were distributed to the Goorkha Eeg-i- 
 ments in India. Maun Sing- was honoured and promoted : a love 
 affair, however, g-ot him into difficulty, and he, knowing- his 
 countrymen well, fled for his life; but he was befriended by 
 Captain (now General) Troup, whom he had attended as an 
 orderly during' the retreat from Kabool. Pie was enlisted in 
 the 48th N. I., and was eng-ag-ed in the battles of the first Seik 
 war where he lost his thumb, while orderly to Major Georg-e 
 Broadfoot, then Governor-General Ag-ent, who lost his life on 
 that occasion. Maun Sing- was pensioned, and had beside the 
 Order of Merit to which a pension was attached. He came all the 
 way from Almorah to Chyabassa, in Aug-ust 1848, to see me, 
 since when I have not heard of him 
 
 Most of the wounded who were unable to move out from 
 Char-eedvar with us, were slaug-litered next day. It is curious 
 that the enemy either did not discover our retreat, or were 
 afraid to venture near, till long- after daylig-ht. A¥e had all 
 throug-hout the sieg-e sounded our bugles with the reg-ularity of 
 peaceable times, by way of a hint to the enemy that we were all 
 rig'ht. On this last fatal morning-, the Bug'le Major, of whose 
 g-allantry I have already spoken , and who was too severely 
 wounded to leave with us, crawled up to a Bastion and sounded 
 the customary bug-le at dawn. 
 
 * Forty or fifty wer'e taken prisoners, amongst whom wore Oomer Sing, the 
 senior Subadar, and his wife. The Subadar of Artillery who wounded me, passing 
 the castle where this man was a prisoner, caused him to be put to death, and the poor 
 Sul)adar's widow, long a prisoner, used to go daily to weep over his bleaching bones. 
 
 -J- One of the survivors, I met at Buxa, Bootan (!), January, -1807.
 
 F CHA 
 
 .^^- 
 
 BY MOTEERA 
 IITON'S RECOLL 
 
 ^^ Ton Lbs 
 
 of Euro pew L offld
 
 P LAN OF CHAREEKAR 
 
 FROM ACCOUNT tlVEN BY MOTEERAM HAVILDAR.AND FILLED 
 
 Y^ "^^ 
 
 — EX PLAN ATION 
 
 (•«//,// & :/a/dt /im„ fart. 20 Jul mult aUo/t, w,(li jlitlmiuj haul. 
 
 .mijuHdlijIiJ III/ a noif almul 6 inilrj iiff 
 
 hirl .1 oljicrrs ,iiuuler.t H bitjlitm lilewn tip ('.tmsluiii with ai/tm 
 
 lC> f'l- lirletii/mti le Shah Soafalt tin U'lM t'ltsUetis. no gttiis 
 
 nM„fa:i,„ /will, fMtil ii, mlh lailli 
 
 V. Itiiir i,,„ml rfCcorkliii lirfl' 
 
 I' III tins i/itleiiiai/ ft lirtiity iiaiipr ifiili . an IS pi" 
 
 iitur it tilt Qtiai'lcf Gitaitl of lite Ite^l 
 I \/,imlioii oei-iipiri/ /.,/ 3<Kio Afjiiaiisimju-Jliah MalimiuJ 
 + lied cro.is - Cafi* Cotlrini/toii uiulLiciLtlSaUkirifliui-icillific 
 (' l\l III uilticli i^cpoif: were biirtcd 
 1'. Iluiial iilaK ofJ)'Loril.limlfaiii.,l„ i Dniiiflmi 
 ft+/-//eil II. IS /a. 
 
 „/«„„,,.,„ iffi,,. 
 
 0=- =^ 
 
 msttrnd iathu] 
 
 o 
 
 m^
 
 APPENDIX A. 
 
 Copy oi' Letter from lArAJOii Eldred Pottinoeti to 
 R. Haitghtox, Esq. 
 
 • Village of Byaoh Hissar, one and a half miles east of Kabool, 
 
 29a May, 1843. 
 
 I\Iy dear Mr. IIaugiiton, 
 
 I was ^-ratified In- your letter of the ^Gtli of February, 
 only a few days received, or should have answered it earlier, for 
 I can assure you, I can most fully sympathize with your anxiety 
 about your gallant son Your prediction of non-relief from 
 anxiety has long- ere this proved true, sliowing- liow correctly 
 you viewed our situation. 
 
 Your son was cut down in a mutiny of the artillerymen, pre- 
 vious to our evacuation of the fortified barrack of Char-ee-kar, 
 and no lang-uag-e I am master of is sufficient to express my 
 admiration of the fortitude and resolution he showed. It was 
 particularly owing- to his example and his exertions, that we 
 w^ere able to Iiold out as long- as we did ; and before Captain Co- 
 dring-ton, his commanding' Officer, died, he requested me to make 
 special mention of him to the Government, and to represent to Sir 
 AVilliam Macnag-hten, that his conduct had shewn him well fitted 
 to command the reg-iment The wounds he received, there was 
 not time to dress before we marched, so that he had to bear up 
 ag-ainst their pain for two nig-hts and a da}'. 
 
 When we left Kabool, he was left behind : the two sword cuts 
 on his shoulder and neck were nearly well, as was that on his 
 left arm, while the stump of the rig-ht arm was rapidly improving-. 
 
 Since my being- broug-ht here, I have been unable to see him, 
 but learn by means of the servantsthat he is quite well ag-ain, and 
 I have every hope of seeing- him shortly. The first opportunity 
 I have, I shall send him your letter; lie expressed much anxiety 
 to send information to you, particularly on Mrs. TIaug'hton's ac- 
 count, and I believe his letters were lost during- our unfortunate 
 attempt to retre^it. llaug-hton and I were inmates of the same 
 room from the time we reached canij) till Sir AYilliam Macnag-li-
 
 40 
 
 ten^s murder, when I was oblig-ecl to leave oflFcare of self. At that 
 period, thing's were as bad as they could he ; the military would 
 neither fig-ht nor fly, and we had neither food nor fuel. I was 
 compelled to renew Sir William Macnag'hten's convention by the 
 same causes that he was compelled to open it, and the result, you 
 will ere this have learned, w^as the utter destruction of the force. 
 I have been preserved by g-iving* myself up as a hostag"e to ensure 
 the performance of the treaty demands ; both parties broke their 
 pledg-es, and I am of course a prisoner. The ladies of the party 
 were promised protection by j\[ahomed Ukbar Khan, and as our 
 army would not protect them, and that Chiefs family were in our 
 hands, I recommended that they should take advantag-e of his 
 offer, and fortunately they did, for they have been and are well 
 treated, after the manner of the Afg'hans. General Pollock's force 
 has been at Jelallabad for nearly two months, but he is paralyzed 
 by the arrang-ements of Sir Jasper Nichols, of the Commissariat 
 department, and want of definite instructions. In return for 
 your prediction, I will also venture my opinion that, if more 
 energ'y and wisdom are not shown, -we shall in all probability 
 receive another check. With General Pollock's army some of 
 the worst officers have been sent. 
 
 The most miserable arrang-ements have been made, particularly 
 in the Commissariat, so that I doubt if Pollock's ability will be 
 able to master it, unless he has the fullest powers and support 
 The service is excessively unpopular with both officers and men ; 
 the former are g-reat pecuniary losers, and the latter have been 
 so alienated from their officers by Lord W, Bentinck's arrang-e- 
 ments, that the}^ have no long'er that care for the service ; w^e no 
 long'er g'ct the sons of respectable landholders, but the poor and 
 needy, to keep whom in order, the lash is absolutely necessary, 
 but not to be used, from his wise measure to g-ain '' Home 
 'popularity ." Latterly every effort has been made to reduce the 
 power of the commanding- officers, snd Government has, as you 
 may see here, nearly succeeded. All our old soldiers reg-ret the 
 past times, however, and would rather have the old system than 
 the new. 
 
 If the Government does not take some decided steps to recover 
 the affections of the army, I really think a singde spark will blow 
 the Sepoys into mutiny; for the zeal of the officers is cold, and it 
 has been that alone which prevents the spirit hitherto. The sole 
 cause of our defeat was not this, to be sure, but it in a g-reat
 
 • 41 
 
 measure aided tlie incompetence of leaders; but every one in the 
 force knew with what contempt military sug-g"estions had been 
 received, and that, joined to other causes, rendered them careless 
 of consequences, and I believe many thoug-ht the sooner they 
 could g-et back the better, and hence did not oppose our retreat. 
 Shah Shooja was murdered at the end of February; his son, how- 
 ever, still holds out in the Bala Ilissaror citadel, and will be able 
 to do so, I believe, some weeks longer. If Pollock can advance 
 before the Bala Ilissar falls, he will not meet much opposition, 
 otherwise I fear he will. Trusting- you will excuse this rough 
 scrawl, which is written sitting- on the floor, with ni}^ knee as a 
 
 support, 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir^. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Eldeed Pottixgek. 
 
 APPENDIX B. 
 
 ExTPxACT OF A Letter from Major Codrington to a 
 Friend in England. 
 
 I wrote to you from Kabool on 28th September, when I was dis- 
 appointed in my hope of being" able to visit the scene of dear 
 Christopher's g'allant struggle at Char-ee-kar, but a day or two 
 afterwards a party of horse with Sir R. Shakespere was sent to 
 Char-ee-kar, and I got leave to join him. Henry Lawrence also 
 accompanied us. We started, disguised as Afghans, soon after 
 dusk, and after a fatiguing ride of forty miles reached Char-ee- 
 kar, just as the troops had quitted the ground. 
 
 I could only therefore take a hasty glance at the place which 
 poor Christopher defended, and where he found his grave. It 
 does not deserve the name of Fort, it is merely a range of Sepo}'' 
 huts forming a square enclosure, the outer wall not being* high 
 enough above the roof to form a parapet. There was a broad gate- 
 way, but no gate; and opposite the small house which the ofS- 
 cers occupied; you may conceive the difficulty of defending- such 
 a place even under favorable circumstances; but besides the de- 
 fects 1 liave mentioned, it was commanded on one side by a more 
 lofty fort from which the party which first occupied it were
 
 42 • 
 
 drawn, the other side b\' rising- o-rotmd. A sort of parapet wa^ 
 mad© by tearing- up the tents and making- sand bag-s : but the 
 soil being- full of pebbles, in fact composed almost entirely of 
 them, they were scattered about when struck by a ball, and did 
 more harm than good; not a drop of water was to be had, except 
 when the g'arrison sallied forth and foug'ht for it; and how the 
 place was held for a fortnight ag-ainst overpowering- number^, is 
 scarcely conceivable. The bravery of the g-arrison must have 
 been beyond all praise, and their exertions unremitting. In the 
 centre of the enclosure stood the magazine, in which dear Christo- 
 pher and Lieutenant Salusbury were buried in one grave; it was a 
 mass of ruins, the w^alls and roof destroyed, and the exact spot 
 undistinguishable among the mass of rubbish. I could only stay 
 for a minute, but it was a melancholy satisfaction to stand on the 
 spot which had been hallowed by the presence of one so dear to me, 
 and to pay the tribute of affection over his grave. I was obliged 
 to hurry off, to overtake the rear g-uard of the troops, and after a 
 ride of ten miles further reached the new ground, thoroughly 
 knocked up." 
 
 APPENDIX 0. 
 
 Statement of PuDDuai Sing, first of Shah Shooja's Uh or Ghoorha 
 Regiment, Sth Com,pany, then of the '6th Coonpany Nitsseree 
 Battalion, and now Ilamldar in the Sth Co7n])any \st Cioorkha 
 Regiment — a native of Palee Pachoung Chowkote Putti, west of 
 Almorah. Made at Biixa, Bhootan, January Vlth, 1867. 
 
 I was left wounded and unable to move on the evacuation of 
 Char-ee-kar; we remained all night, expecting to be murdered. 
 Next morning- the Affg'hans came and stripped us of our clothing 
 Some were killed. Heera Sing was Subadar of my Company, he 
 was wounded iu a night attack at <Sp. m. It was S p. m. when 
 the troops evacuated Char-ee-kar. I remained at Char-ee-kar 
 with the Subadar till he went into Cabul, (that is the Subadar 
 
 who surrendered his post); he was a Kankee, his name was 
 
 Adhikaree. I lay for nine months wounded at Char-ee-kar. h. 
 1)unniah took me to Kalabagh, whence we fled on the advance of 
 the troop.s. I met Lieutenant ]\lcl\can of llu^ Khclat-i-Gliilzoe
 
 43 
 
 Reg'iment between Ghiiznee and Kandahar. He, on hearing- that 
 I was of the 4th Reg"iment, questioned me and put me throug-h 
 mj facing's; being" satisfied,, he took me to Captain Craig-ie, by 
 whose orders I was enlisted in the regiment. 
 
 When we g-ot to Cabul, I wished to join the survivors of my 
 own corps, but was tokl that all reg-iments were the same, and 
 that I must remain where I was. "When we were encamped near 
 Seeah Sung-, I went and made my salam to you. 
 
 I was with the party who first went to the relief of Major Pot- 
 ting-er's Fort at Lugmanee, The 7th and 8th companies went, and 
 the same companies were sent there ag"ain the next day, and also 
 were eng"ag-ed in the first fig'ht at Char-ee-kar. I do not distincly 
 remember the commencement of the outbreak, but so much that 
 one day it was reported Mr. Rattray was killed, then the two 
 companies were sent out. We had two men wounded, the enemy 
 had seven or eig'ht killed, I bayoneted one myself. I do not 
 know the actual loss on one side or the other. That same nig"ht 
 Mohun Beer Moonshee, Major Potting-er and a Keranee Sahib 
 came to our place, it may have been the next nig"ht; the morning 
 after they came, I heard from an old sepoy of my Company that 
 the enemy had g-ot into their Fort. So our men escaped by a 
 postern g-ate. 1 do remember that some of our men remained on 
 sentry at the towers at Lug'manee after the rest came away. 
 
 I was in the figdit which took place at tlie corner of the Char- 
 ee-kar bazar. We drove the enemy out of their first shelter, and 
 we took cover in the canal, from which tlie enemy had suffered 
 the water to escape; from thence our sepoys beg-an to advance one 
 or two at a time; you called out to them not to advance, as the 
 enemy were too many for us. I remember you wrote on a piece 
 of paper with charcoal to Captain Codring'ton for more men and 
 for what else I don't know. We went on after that. 
 
 X was with Captain Codring-ton when he was wounded in our 
 bazar, the people of which had g-one inside the Barrack; he was 
 wounded in the breast; I do not remember when Major Pottinger 
 was wounded. I was wounded the nigdit when Ensig"n Rose 
 went out with two or three companies. Herapiunee Soobadar and 
 three or four, of our men were killed. We pa.ssed out by the 
 Parade g-round and throng'h the enemy's entrenchments, when 
 Eusig-n Rose fired. I was then wounded in the rig'ht thig'h and
 
 44 » 
 
 left arm, and became unconscious. I remained in Hospital for 
 eig'ht or nine days previous to the retreat. 
 
 I heard you were wounded by a Golundaz. I was lying* in great 
 pain with the wound in my leg* at the time, but strug'g'led to the 
 door, and saw you returning' towards the Hospital, People said 
 to the sepoys who were with you, " Why did you not prevent 
 this?" A Havildar said, ""Who should know that we had an 
 enemy within? we were watching' the enemy without." 
 
 I remained wutli Jye Deb Brahmin, and an Eastern man whose 
 name I don't know, for nine months, at the ash pit of Hummam 
 (Turkish bath), for the sake of its warmth. Jye Deb was in the 
 Battalion at Kang-ra, and died there. 
 
 I think there were about one hundred men left wounded or 
 dying- in Hospital. Some were killed, some were carried away. 
 
 some went with Soubadar Adhikari; the man lying- next 
 
 to me was killed, because he did not g-et up quiCK enoug'h. I 
 received a thrust of a bayonet. A sepoy came to the Hospital 
 and said, the Soubadar called us. I went towards the town, but 
 never saw him. An Akhoon fed me; after my wound healed, the 
 limb remained stiff; he told me to rub it daily with g-hee in the 
 sun, and I should be able to use it. I did so, and was able to 
 move about. I heard that the Eng-lish had taken the Khyber 
 Pass : when I saw the people fleeing*, with their families, I knew 
 it to be true. We heard that the Burra* Sahibs had been taken 
 away to Bameean, and that Akber Kan intended tokeepthem 
 till his fathert was released. I once heard Afg-hans say that they 
 had lost at Char-ee-kar and Cabnl from two thousand to two thou- 
 sand five hundred men. I don't know what chiefs were killed. 
 
 I don't know when Captain Codring-ton died, or where he was 
 buried. I believe he died the nig'ht after he was wounded, but it 
 was kept secret, for fear the men should be dispirited. We were 
 told you said he was alive, and that relief was coming- from Cabul. 
 There w^ere four of us in the Khelat-i-Ghilzie Reg'iment, viz Hun- 
 nooman Doobay, ISTatoo Sonar. Dhurmoo and myself; in the 3rd 
 Hill reg'iment five, and seven entered the Hill reg'iment of Pheroo 
 (Ferris?) Saheb. 
 
 I heard that when the troops left Char-ee-kar, some went with 
 you. some in another direction, and others with Mr. Hose fol- 
 lowed you. I heard that he and Hunnooman Jemadar were killed. 
 
 -^Tho English oiliceis. 
 
 f Ameer Dost Mahomed Khan.
 
 45 
 
 Jye DeVs wife was with him, she was yonno-; wc were often 
 threatened in joke, but no one interfered with us. I don't know 
 who was the owner of the fort near us; it was a musket shot and 
 
 a half distant from us. T don't know wdiat became of the 
 
 Adhikari. Jye Deb once went 1o tlie llarracks, he told me there 
 was nothing" there but men's skulls and bones. The stream in 
 front of our Barracks, was half a musket shot distant. I was^ 
 fifteen or sixteen days without any water at all. The only food 
 I had after I was wounded, was once some raw mutton and a seer 
 of coarse flour which I had by me; part of it I ate dry. I believe 
 there were about 200 killed and wounded before the retreat. 
 Mohun Beer is in a Eessaleh at Kohat. 
 
 Statement of ^m.ijAx Sarkie, Naik, \st Goorlha Regiment, Uh 
 Company. Made at Bitxa, Bhootan, lUh January, 1867. 
 
 When about twelve years of ag-e. I was at Cabul with my sis- 
 ter's husband, Sookea Sarkie, Havildar of Shah Schooja's 4th or 
 GhoorkaReg'iment, 6th Company. I went with the Reg-iment by 
 way of Shikarpore in 1838. I was with the reg"iment at Bameean, 
 Syg-han, and at Char-ee-kar. 
 
 The nig-ht we retreated from that place, I left by the postern 
 g'ate with my sister's husband and his companions, I was with 
 you. 
 
 The 1st, 3nd, 3rd and 4th Companies were formed into a square, 
 and the women and children wera placed in the centre ; in this 
 manner we started. A¥e soon, however, broke up and w^ere scat- 
 tered about. At daylig-ht we reached- Khoja Serai; there were 
 about 250 men and 16 women- At between 7 and 8 o'clock fig-ht- 
 ing- beg-an. Mr. Eose, and the Quarter Master, Serg-eant llan- 
 rahan, and the Soubadar of the 2nd Company were killed. They 
 killed some of the women and seized me and the rest. I re- 
 mained eleven months in a Shikarpore Khutree'sf house. AYhen 
 troops came, I joined them and met you. 
 
 You g*ave me 4 rupees for expenses. I came to India with 
 Nowell Sing-, attached to Broadfoot's Sappers. Seven or eig-ht 
 hundred of the enemy surrounded us at Khoja Serai. Only three 
 or four of our party escaped. About 50 were collected from 
 different quarters, and kept at Khoja Serai for two and a 
 half mouths, then Prince Futteh Jung* sent for them, saying* he 
 
 * Tliis statement I have no doubt was made in perfect good faith, we all had lost 
 count of time. 
 7 Hindoo merchant of Shikari)ore, in Sind.
 
 46 
 
 would employ them . The Hindoo shopkeepers had supported them 
 up to that time. They all eventually came to you and served 
 with Broadfoot's Sappers. I myself saw Mr. Eose killed; they 
 called upon him to lay down his arms; he threw down his pistol, 
 whereon they shot him, and afterwards hacked him witli their 
 long' knives. The Quarter Master Serg-eant was cut down with' 
 their knives, the bodies remained where they fell. Mr. Rose's 
 dog- stayed by his body for ten days; I often called it/ but 
 it would not come a vay. I do not know what became of it, none 
 of the bodies were buried. 
 
 The fig'ht lasted about an hour; the spot where Mr. Eose was 
 killed was about two miles on the Cabal side of Khoja Serai. 
 Our men did not make any stand, they were killed in flig-ht. 
 Many of the survivors of the Corps are in the Sappers and Miners 
 at Huftabnd (AbbotabadP) The fig'ht lasted fifteen days at Char- 
 ee-kar. 
 
 APPENDIX D. 
 
 Extract from the ENGLISHMAN Newspaper, of Calcutta, 
 April 27th, 1842. 
 
 Personal nafratwe of Havildar Motee Ham, of the Shall s Mli or 
 C-fhoorkha Regiment of Light It fantry , desProyed at Char-ee-har. 
 
 The 4th Eeg"iment was sent to Char-ee-kar in the month of 
 May. We were placed in g-arrison in the g'uree, then in prog-ress 
 of erection. Major Potting-er and some other g-entlemen were in 
 another g'uree, distant about a coss from ours, and called Iv'alla 
 Lukman."^ To this latter fort we furnished a party of 100 men, 
 under a Soubadar — this party was relieved weekly. The g'uree 
 of Char-ee-kar in which we were placed was quadrang'ular in 
 fig'ure, 100 yards long- in each face, and having' a bastion at each 
 ang'le — the ditch from which the earth had 'been excavated to 
 build up the walls, at the deepest was onl}' three feet, in other 
 parts not more than two feet deep. A Khutria, named II ur 
 Sing'h, was eng-ag'ed in building' the g'uree by contract. The 
 g'uree of Char-ee-kar is marked A in the accompanj-ing" sketch; 
 there were two g-ateways to it, with g-ates, one to the west, 
 another to the east, marked 1 and 2 in the sketch. At 2 was tlie 
 
 ■j^Killa Lughmaiic'c.
 
 47 
 
 quarter g'uarcl of the Regiment, at 1 its rearg'uard; outside of the 
 g-ate No. 2 was a number of huts inhabited by the bazar people 
 of the 4th Eeg'iment ; in this g"ateway was placed a long' and 
 heavy native gMin, 1 should think an eig'htcen-poutider ; on* each 
 of the two bastions marked 3 and 4 was placed one of the Shah's 
 six-pounders. A small thread of water was conducted from the 
 neig"hbouring" hills, and a hollow formed from working- up the 
 earth with water to rais!^ the walls of the g-uree ; after the flov/ 
 of water into this hollow was stopped by the Afghans, there con- 
 tinued stag-nant in it about fifteen mussucks, vide No. 5. There 
 were no g'uns on the bastions marked 6 and 7. I have shown how 
 all the artillery we had — the three g-uns already mentioned — 
 were disposed of. The huts for the Sepoys were arrang-ed along' 
 the interior sides of the g-uree, connected together and flat- 
 roofed. There is no water within the fort of Char-ee-kar, which 
 stands on a plain, no hills approaching' it nearer than four miles. 
 Our officers' quarters were at the westward gate. In front of the 
 eastern face of Char-ee-kar, and distant from its walls 150 feet, 
 ran a canal B B B, with shelving banks 20 feet in breadth at the 
 top, and about 15 feet deep. The water which ran in it was 
 generally waist deep ; this canal was fed by a river to the north, 
 and about six miles distant from Char-ee-kar — the road to Lugh- 
 man crossedf the canal on which there is a bridge -the road is 
 marked 8 8 b S, and to prevent injury to the cultivation, was made 
 to wind considerably to the N. E. of bastion No. 3. About 26 
 yards ofl^ was situated a fakhir's hut and tukeah, — this is marked 
 C in the sketch. To the south of bastion No. 4, distant also some 
 200 yards, there was an extensive vineyard D; about the same 
 distance, there stood to the S. ^Y. of bastion No. 7 a Musjeed 
 marked E. At F were three tombs of European officers, nearly, I 
 should say, 400 yards from bastion No. 6. G was the targ'et 
 practice butt, distant from, and north of the same bastion, 350 
 yards. H was a small g'uree behind the Eakhir'shut, and 500 
 yards from the fort of Char-ee-kar. The site of the town of 
 Char-ee-kar is marked I I, while K denotes that of the fort of 
 Lughman. 
 
 A few days before the Dewallee, Mr. Eattray, who commanded 
 one of tlie Affghan corps, was lured out from the fort of Lugh- 
 
 ^ The l>istion nearest the town alone had a gun. — J. C. II. 
 
 Y'rhcif is some confusion of ideas here; the road from Char-ee-kar and Lugh- 
 mauee rna parallel to the canal for about three miles, then crossed the canal at 
 right angles to the castle, distant about 500 yards. — J. C. H.
 
 48 
 
 man by Shah Mahommed of ISnjrow, to look, he said, at some 
 recruits which he broug'ht with him for service. They were 
 mounted men. As Lt. Eattray was examining- them drawn up in 
 a line, Shah Mahommed g-ave his troopers a wink, when they 
 wheeled up from the rig-ht and left, and enclosed Mr. Eattray, 
 who was shot with a pistol, and his body, which was afterwards 
 recovered, hacked to pieces. I heard this from the Goorkha 
 Moonshee Mohun Eeer who accompanied Mr. Eattray, but esca- 
 ped under the horses' bellies. The men who murdered Mr. Eat- 
 tray now made a dash a tthe Fort of Lugdiman. Mr. Eattray's 
 Eeg'iment* of Affg-hans immediately joined the assailants. The 
 attack had continued for the space of two hours, the Affg-hans 
 being" kept at bay by our g-uard. Capt. Codring-ton then direc- 
 tedt Lieut. Haugditon to take the 2d and 8th Companies to re-in- 
 force Lug"hman. Our men took each 60 rounds of ammunition in 
 their pouches. When they had expended 50 in skirmishing-, and 
 killing- numbers of the Affg-hans, they were ordered to close and 
 charg-e ; they did so ; a g-reat number of the Affg-hans soug'ht 
 refug-e in a vineyard, but were almost entirely destroyed by the 
 bayonet and cookry.ft AH the Affg-hans who had been attacking- 
 the fort of Lug-hman drew off, and our two companies returned 
 to that of Char-ee-kar, which they reached at 3 o'clock p.m,§ A 
 few hours afterwards firing- was heard at Lug-hman — the 
 Affg-hans were fired upon by our people when endeavouring-, to 
 remove their head. 
 
 The following* morning- it was observed that the enemy were 
 very numerous about Lug-hman, and pressing- its g-arrison hard ; 
 so§§ at 6 a.m. the 1st, 3rd, and 6th companies of my Eeg-iment, 
 with a six-pounder drawn by bullocks, under the command of 
 Lieutenant Haug-hton, issued from the Ghurree Char-ee-kar, with 
 the view of assisting- our troops at Lug-hman. AVe advanced, 
 until we arrived within half a mile of Lug-hman, without opposi- 
 tion ; at this point a body of 1,000 of the enemy's infantry, with 
 a few horsemen interspersed among-st them, attempted to cut-off 
 our way; this party we easily repulsed. We now had arrived 
 at a bridg-e near Lug-hman, on (at) which our six-pounder was 
 
 * There were only a few horsemen with the Political Agent. — J. C. II. 
 
 -J- II will be seen from my narrative that Molce Ram is mistaken, Captain Cod- 
 ringtori being himself .shut up in Lughmance. — J. C. H. 
 
 -pJ-The cookry is a Goorkha weapon. 
 
 >:) This is also a mistake ; they did not get back till dark. — J. C. II. 
 
 !:;■:; It will be seen from my narrative that Motee Ram was ignorant of the cause for 
 which this pai'ly was sent out, and his nuimory is at fault as to some details. — J. C. H.
 
 49 
 
 l)laced ; suddenly from all quarters a rush was made for the gun 
 by immense multitudes of Affgdians, who had concealed them- 
 selves in the vineyards and different huilding's round about. It 
 is difficult to form any accurate notion of the number of our 
 assailants so scattered, but it struck me there must have been 
 25,000 — all the villag'es of Kohistan, Punj sheer, and Gorband 
 poured forth their inhabitants against us ; the whole male popu- 
 lation in this quarter of Affg'hanistan had taken the Ghazi's oath. 
 Our front, rear, and both flanks were attacked simultaneously, 
 but tlic most serious attack was in front, or from the Lug'hman 
 side, the plain between which and where we were was completely 
 crowded with Affg'hans. We repulsed them all with g-reat 
 slaughter, but suffered severe loss ourselves. Lieutenant Salus- 
 bury* was killed — shot in the chest, and placed in one of the two 
 doolies we had with us. The Quarter Master Sergeant was 
 wounded. The Soubadar of my company, the 6th, Singh Beer 
 by name, and a most gallant oflicer, was put in the second doolie. 
 The Quarter Master Sergeant was able to walk, supported by two 
 sepoys. We had now been absent three hours from the guree of 
 Char-ee-kar, a great part of which time we were seriously en- 
 gaged. It was now observed that heavy bodies of the enemy 
 were against Char-ee-kar itself. We were ordered to retrace our 
 steps ; the 1st company was thrown out as skirmishers to cover 
 our retreat ; those badly wounded it was impossible to carry off 
 with us, we were so hotly assailed. The Affghans quickly killed 
 them, and seemed to take much delight in mutilating their dead 
 bodies, and pitching their severed members to a distance from 
 each other t A^'e fought our way back to the gurree of Char-ee- 
 kar, which we reached about 10 o'clock a.m. The Affghans now 
 surrounding the fort of Char-ee-kar, and seeking* shelter from 
 our fire behind the walls of the vineyard, the target practice 
 butt, officers' tombs, Musjeed and Fakhir's hut, annoyed us very 
 mucli ; it rained bullets. Leaving 200 men in the fort, and tak- 
 ing out the two six-pounders. Captain Codrington drove the 
 enemy from all the positions they had taken up around us. At 
 the second discharge one of the six-pounders§ broke down. The 
 
 *The sergeant was wounded in the chest, and sent in on the only dooly we had ; 
 Salusbuiy, mortally wounded, walked half a mile to the barracks, supported by 
 two men. We had but one dooly. — J. C. H. 
 
 -j- This is a pure piece of imagination. — J. C. H. 
 
 §This too is incorrect; the gun broke down while I was firing it, on our retreat. 
 —S. C. H.
 
 50 
 
 Affg-hans entirely vanished for the present, bnt the water ceased 
 to run in the canal B B B. We found afterwards that the 
 Aflpgdians had diverted it to the eastward at the point marked L. 
 Our casualties in the whole of this day were very numerous. 
 About 10 o'clock p.m. when the canal had become dry, the 
 enemy appeared again, retaking- possession of all their former 
 positions and of the now dry canal besides, the banks of which 
 effectually screened them from our fire. 
 
 Towards morning- the attack on the fort became more feeble, 
 until at last it ceased altog*ether; however about 7 o'clock the 
 whole mass of the enemy precipitated itself against the fort ; 
 horse and foot leagaered us round on every side. The two six- 
 pounders (we had mended the broken one in the course of the 
 night) were taken out with the greater part of the regiment, 
 while the long gun fired from the gateway on the enemy. One 
 of the six-pounders again broke down ,• the bulk of the enemy 
 were again beaten off, but a continued skirmishing among'st the 
 the vineyards and different buildings was kept up until night- 
 fall : half the men of the regiment remained in the fort, while 
 half skirmished, and thus relieved each other alternately. At 10 
 o'clock p. M. Major Pottinger, another gentleman, and the party 
 fromLughman which had been as busy as ourselves, joined us. The 
 want of water began to be felt severely by us; there was scarcely 
 any provision within the fort. We did not mind that so much as 
 the torments of thirst. The enemy continued attacking us daily. 
 On the 3rd day, as well as I can remember, all the Affghans col- 
 lected in a body to capture the long gun at the gateway ; there 
 were whole beeghas of gleaming swords moving' towards us, and 
 shouts of a ''Chari yar, Alii Mudut" rent the air. We answered 
 them back at every discharge of the long gun, '' Gorucknath ke- 
 jy.'' This assault was by far the most severe we had yet experien- 
 ced. Major Pottinger and the other European officers said they 
 never witnessed such a conflict. Capt. Codrington was shot 
 through the chest. He was carried to his quarters alive, but'died 
 shortly after. Major Pottinger was wounded in the thigh. We 
 charged the Affghans and drove them in the direction of the point 
 were the water was turned off. On this occasion we partially 
 destroyed the Fakhir's Tukea where we always observed the Aff- 
 ghans clustered thickest. Next day, a seer of water was served 
 out to each man by Lieut. Ilaughton ; this water was obtained 
 from the hollow marked 5 in the sketch. Tlie second day after.
 
 51 
 
 hair a seer was sapplicd; in a few days it diminished to a chit- 
 tack, and at hist ceased altog-ether. Some doombahs [sheep] 
 were g-iven to us by the ofScers; we found relief from sucking* 
 the raw flcsli, and some of the men phiced the contents of the sto- 
 mach of the sheep in cloths, and wring-ing- them very hard ob- 
 tained some moisture to assuag*e their raging- thirst. The sick 
 and wounded now increasedto a frightful amount, and were con- 
 tinually screaming" for water in piercing- accents. Our muskets 
 were so foul from incessant use that the balls were forced down 
 with difficulty, althoug'h separated from the paper of the cartridg"e 
 which usiuilly wraps them round. The lips of the men became 
 swollen and bloody, and their tong'ues clove to their palates. 
 
 I oug-ht to have mentioned that the day Capt. Codring-ton was 
 killed, your old Shikarree"^" at Lohoog-hat, Nur Siugdi, was also 
 slain. He wasthe best shot among- us; every time he fired he kill- 
 ed an Affg'han. The European officers were so pleased with him, 
 that he was to have been made a Jemader. Days and nig-hts 
 rolled on. We were continually eng-ag-ed with the enemy; the 
 men used to steal out in' the nig-ht to the spring- which formerly 
 supplied the hollow marked 5, but which the Affg'hans turned off 
 in another direction. Those who had. the canteens you sent up 
 with the last Goorkha's Levies, used them ; those who had lotas 
 only, took them with them covered in clothes, lest the g-litter of 
 the metal should lead to detection ; those who had neither lotas nor 
 canteens resorted to the use of cloths which they dipped in the 
 fountain and broug'ht back saturated with moisture. When any 
 of these adventurous spirits returned to the fort, all strug-g-led 
 round them to procure one precious drop. The Affg-hans, how- 
 ever, found out the practice, and shot down all those who ap- 
 proached the spring-. For two days there was not a sing-le drop of 
 water within the wall of the fort; the men were mad with thirst, 
 and demanded to be led ag-ainst any perils to procure water. 
 According-ly, at midnig-ht, Lieut. Rosef conducted a party of 100 
 men, taking' with them all the lotas and canteens they could carry, 
 and all the bhistees and non-combatants to the spot marked M, 
 where the water from the new cut had overflowed its banks, by 
 the route marked by arrows pointing- from the Gurree of Char-ee- 
 kar. Having- luxuriated for a short time in the delicious element, 
 and filled our vesssels with it, Lieut. Rose took us to a field of 
 
 *"Your old Shikaree" Moteo Ham was addressing this narrative to Major 
 McSherry personally. — Ed. " Englishman." 
 t Ensign A. Rose, 54th N. I.— Ed.
 
 52 
 
 radishes marked N. Here we crammed as many as we could into 
 our mouths and stuck our belts full of more for our comrades in 
 the fort, to which we set out on our retrun by the route indicated 
 by arrows pointing- towards it. Shah Mahomed with a body of 
 3,000 men had taken post at the spot marked O. at an early hour 
 of the nig'ht, and erected his standard at P. — A g-reat number of 
 his men were in the now dry bed of the canal B B B.; they seemed 
 to keep a negdig-ent look out. Lieut. Rose said to us, '' Give 
 them one volley, then the steel you know to use so well." The 
 non-combatants carrying" the water were placed out of harm's 
 way behind a wall. We fired together by word of command from 
 Lieutenant Eose on the slumbering- crowd of faces witin 50 yards 
 of them. We then charg-ed shouting- '• Goruknath ke-jy, " and 
 set the bayonet and cookry to work with a will. A company 
 drawn up in readiness at the g'ateway to assist us, should we re- 
 quire their aid, heard our battle-cry, rushed down to the canal 
 B B B. extended itself along- its banks on the Char-ee-kar fort 
 side, and slew the Afg'hans as they tried to scramble out on that 
 side. On the opposite we were performing- the same operations. 
 Those who had cookries did most execution; there is no weapon 
 like the cookry for a hand-to-hand fight. Mahomed Shah him- 
 self was killed, and we captured his g-reen flag% and carried it off 
 in triumph to the fort Char-ee-kar. Shah Mahomed's flag* was a 
 very mag-nificent one; its staff was surmounted by a trident 
 [crescent?] and ball of g'old, and the flag- itself was six feet long- 
 and equally broad, made of the finest g-reen broadcloth, with a 
 fig-ure of the sun splendidly embroidered in the centre. It was 
 an old acquaintance of ours, and chang-ed bearers frequently, as 
 we successively shot them during- our long- term of figditing-. We 
 had somewhat spoiled its beauty too, by piercing- it with bullets; 
 the artificial sun shining- in the lig-ht of the real one, as it waved 
 out in the breeze, offered a famous mark. We were as happy in 
 Char-ee-kar that nig-ht as we could be under the heavy loss of 
 our fallen comrades, and in sig-ht of the suffering-s of those w6un- 
 ded, who were stretched on the g-round thickly around us. The 
 thirst of all^" was completely relieved, and their hunger partially 
 so. Our officers were proud of us, and we were proud of ourselves 
 and of each other. The officers said. Shah Mahomed's flag- should 
 be ever retained in the reg-iment as a memorial of that nig-ht's 
 achievement. For some days after the capture of Shah Maho- 
 
 *That. is, all ofMoteo Ram's party.— J. C. H.
 
 53 
 
 med's flag', and the death of its owner, the enemy relaxed his 
 efforts and we our fire. This interval of comparative repose was 
 most g-rateful and refreshing* to us. The number of Afg'hanshad 
 very perceptibly diminished in out- vicinity. Five days* passed 
 when the horrors of thirst beg-an to assail us again. At last a 
 messag-e was received from the treacherous inhabitants of the 
 town of Char-ec-kar that they dared not turn the water down to 
 us themselves, as they would assuredly be murdered, if they did 
 SO; but that we mig'ht come and throw a dam across the new cut 
 at L., remove the other dam, and cause the water to flow in its 
 wonted channel ag-ain. Two hundred men,t accompanied by 
 Lieutenants Haug'hton and Rose, and taking' our fourahs or dig-- 
 g-ing- tools with ns, proceeded along' the banks of the canal B B B 
 to L. On the road we had some skirmishing-, but not much. As 
 soon as the men came in sig-ht of the water at L, many of them 
 rushed madly forward, and beg'an to drink; while in the act of 
 doing- so, a heavy fire was suddenly opened upon them by the 
 ambushed Afg'hans in the g-ardens, houses, and behind the walls 
 of the town of (Jhar-ee-kar — this fire caused g-reat havoc among'st 
 us, and we were forced to retreat without effecting- our object. 
 Dying' of thirst, lamentably reduced in numbers — weakened by 
 toil and Imng'er, the Afghans clung- more closely round as our 
 exertions in our own defence became less energ-etic. A mine,§ 
 the shaft of which commencing- at the Fukhir's Tukeah C, and 
 passing- b}^ Bastion 3, terminated in a chamber at Bastion 4, was 
 sprung'. A third of the Bastion 4 was destroyed, two men were 
 buried in its ruins — the dotted line from C to Bastion No 4 shows 
 the course of the shaft of the mine. The Afg'hans are very expert 
 miners — they learn the art from continually dig-g-ing-''Careezes/' 
 The explosion of the n>ine in question seemed to be the sig-nal for 
 another determined onset on the part of the Afg'hans. The stock 
 of g-rape shot originally brought from Cabul had been expended, 
 bag's were filled with musket balls, and loaded with these ; the 
 heavy g'un at each discharge cut long' lanes in the throng' of 
 Mong-elas, while we kept up a continual fire from the roofs of 
 the Barracks. The Mussulmans pressed on nevertheless; the 
 party protecting the g-un below was ainiihilated, and the cannon 
 
 •^ There is hero such complete confusion of ideas as lo time, dial I feel it impos- 
 sible to put the narrative right. — J. C. H. 
 
 -J- This is a mistake, as there were unly two digging hoes and Iwn ])icks willi (he 
 regiment. — .1. C. 11. 
 
 i:j Such a mine was an impo,ssihilil y ; see my account. — .1. (.1. II
 
 54 
 
 almost in the clutches of the enemy, when Lieutenant Haug-hton 
 called out, " Down from the walls, every man of you, and rally 
 round the gun, which is nearly in the hands of the enemy, and 
 with it go the lives and honour of us all." We every one of us 
 rushed out of the g^ateway, and charg-ed the enemy, who recoiled 
 from the shock as far as the canal B B B, to which they confined 
 themselves; keeping- up a dropping- fire on the walls of the 
 Gurree. We buried this day within the fort the bodies of Capt. 
 Codring-ton, L.Salusbury, the Serjeant Major, and upwards of 200 
 of the Sepoys of tbe 4th Regiment. The following day the Lobar 
 Mistree^ of the 4th Regiment, who was anative of Hindoostan, 
 and who served iu the regiment from the time it was first raised, 
 but was a Mussulman and married to an Afghan, wife of Cliar- 
 ee-kar, together with the gunners, who were all Mussulmans 
 from the Punjaub, plotted to leave us, and g'o over to the enemy. 
 In attempting' to put this into execution,' they proceeded to the 
 gateway, but as they were going' out, Lieut. Haughton seized the 
 jemadar of the Golandauze to detain him; the latter immediately 
 drew his sword, cut at Lieut. Haughton, and wounded him in the 
 hand severely, and breaking loose, Lieut. Haughton called out, 
 " Shoot these nimiick harams. — they are ofi'to the enemy." We 
 fired at the party as they ran in the direction of the canal, and 
 dropped five of them. The third dayf after this event, our num- 
 ber brought down to a little more than 200 men fit for action, 
 without water, without foot, and onl}^ thirty rounds of ammuni- 
 tion per man remaining, it was determined to evacuate the Gurree 
 of Char-ee-kar, and endeavour to fight our way to Cabul. At 
 midnig'ht we moved out; we had only two doolies§ in which were 
 placed Major Potting-er and Lieut. Ifaughton, the bearers of all 
 the others were either killed or had died. Nearly 300 of our 
 eomrades, dead, d^ang, or so badly wounded as to be unable to 
 walk, were left behind within the ghurree of Char-ee-kar. I don't 
 know whether the guns, which were also left behind, were 
 spiked or not. I think from the death of Lieut. Ratti-ay until the 
 period of our finally evacuating the Gurree of Char-ee-kar, 
 twenty-one or twenty -three days must have elapsed. I had too 
 much, to do to take account of time, I cannot give dates, but I 
 
 * This man was failhful. and i^aw mc liis opinion llial Ili6 gunners wvvv plol- 
 ling.— J. C. H. 
 
 -j- Here again Molcc Ram is mistaken ; il will he seen thai, the retreat took place 
 the very night 1 was wounded. — J.,C. 11. 
 
 § There were no doolies ; we rode. — J. C. II.
 
 00 
 
 narrate events in their order of succession, to the best of my 
 memory. I ought to mention that the walls of the Gurree of 
 Char-ee-kar had only reached the heig-ht of one cubit above the 
 roof of the Sepoys' Barracks when the fig-htinjj;" beg-an; conse- 
 quently so low a parapet g-ave us little protection from the ene- 
 my's jazails, which told on us from a distance, one half of which 
 only muskets could carry to with effect. The day after Capt. 
 Codrlng-ton's death, to remedy this defect, the officers tore up 
 their tents, and made bag's of the canvas, filled them with 
 earth, and placed them on the walls, to cover us from the Afg'hans' 
 fire. 
 
 At the time hostilities broke out, there were two Goorkha Fak- 
 hirs in the fort, who were visiting- on a pilg-rimag-e the different 
 Hindoo shrines in Afg-hanistan. They demanded that arms and 
 ammunition should be g'ivcn to them. Our officers complied 
 with their request, and these sturdy and holy personag-es 
 astonished us all by their feats in action : there were none of us 
 who foug-ht the Afg-hans better than they did. AVe marched on 
 during- the nig-lit without molestation, until we arrived at a vil- 
 lag-e near Kara Bag-h, the second reg-ular inarching- stag-e from 
 Caubul on the Char-ee-kar road. Here opposition commenced, 
 and we advanced skirmishing- until we reached Kara Bag-h, 
 about 3 o'clock a. m.. by which time our movements became 
 g-enerally known, and our enemies were getting- round us in 
 hopeless numbers every minute. The road ran thoug-h the middle 
 of the town of Kara Bag-h with walls and vineyards on either 
 side : these the Afg-hans lined, and from them- poured a deadly 
 and frequent fire on us. Numbers, were killed — we were totally 
 vanquished; there was a g-ateway into a rineyard on one side of 
 the road. I rushed throug-h it ; an Afg-han laid hold of my 
 clothes to detain me, but I shook him off and continued my flig-lit, 
 taking- care to carry off my musket with me, for which I had only 
 5 rounds remaining- in ui}' pouch. I ascended the summit of the 
 hills, and ensconced myself in a hollow far up in the mountain, 
 where there was water, during- the day — on the coming- of nig-ht, 
 I endeavoured to make my way to Caubul; T had arrived within 
 two miles of the British Cantonments there — when the dawn 
 discovered to me that I had g'ot into the middle of the Afg-han 
 troops besieg-ing- the place at the time. I saw at once all hope of 
 further escape was g-one. I had 100 rupees in my kummerbund, 
 which sum T amassed in the Shah's service. I took it out and
 
 56 
 
 buried it^ placing- a stone which I thoiig-ht I could ag*ain recog-nize, 
 over it, and sat down quietly to await what mig'ht happen. 
 Shortly a party of horse, about 25 in number, belong-ing" to Hajiz 
 Khan and Bahahdeen approached the spot were I waSj and they 
 immediately dismounted — some seized me by the feet, some by 
 the shoulders ; one man, taking- up my own musket, snapped it 
 three times at me. I am aMussalman, said I; God does npt will 
 that you should kill me — the musket won't go off. The fatalist 
 I addressed threw down the musket, drew his sabre, and with its 
 sharp edg-e pressing- on my throat called on me to say the kalma, 
 else he would immediately sacrifice me. I did repeat the kalma 
 — the sabre was removed from my throat and they carried me to 
 Bahahdeen, first depriving- me of my coat, pantaloons, a silk 
 handkerchief, a pistol, my shoes and some other articles, leaving- 
 me only a pair of pyjamhs. Bahahdeen g-urree is situated I 
 should think about three coss from the city of Cabul. While I 
 remained with Bahahdeen for five days, the people of the village 
 continually threatened to put me to death. Bahahdeen at length 
 released me, giving me an old tattered loonghee for a turban and 
 my own chogali, and saw me a coss on my road. After he left me 
 I had proceeded a coss, when a man ploughing on the road 
 side seized me, and threatened to kill me, unless I worked his 
 plough. I did so until evening, when he took me to his house 
 and there gave me a scanty meal. This man employed me 10 daj^s 
 in guiding his plough. While with him, I suffered severely 
 during the night time — the weather was bitter cold, and I had 
 nothing to cover me but my chogah. I examined the roof of the 
 the house during- the day, and it appeared to me that by remo- 
 ving a few of the bricks from a sort of chimney I might get out 
 unobserved. At night I did so, and effected my escape for the time. 
 
 I had got five coss further on the road to Jellalabad, when the 
 son of a sirdar who was fig-hting at Cabul (I don't know his 
 name), sent some horsemen to take and bring- me to him. I was 
 taken to the gurree, all the inmates of which, young and' old, 
 male and female, gathered round, exclaiming, ''A Kaffir or 
 Feringhee : kill him ; kill him ; " but the young chief protected 
 me from violence, and told me to groom his horse. This young 
 man was continually looking in the direction of Cabul, through a 
 telescope which lie said Sir A. Burnes had given his father as a 
 present. I was hard-worked and ill-fed in this family. I re- 
 mained with them about eight days, when the young chief trans-
 
 57 
 
 ferred me to a native of Ghorbiind who came to his villag-e, and 
 rented his g-razing* ground for a hirg-e flock of camels. T was 
 employed tending- these camels for some twenty days. I was not 
 well fed. I had made acquaintance with a servant of my com- 
 pulsory master. This servant was a Iluzara, who received one 
 rupee two annas a month as wag-es. He became kindly disposed 
 to me, and one day told me that our master desig-ned to sell me 
 to some Bokhara merchants, with whom he was at that moment 
 driving" a barg-ain about me. I immediately ran away, to escape 
 the intended sale. On crossing' the river at Bhoothak, five 
 Affg-hans seized me, and asked me if I were a Feriugdiee. I re- 
 plied in the neg-ative, and stated that I was a discharg'ed camel 
 man of Shah Shooja's; they asked me why Shah Shooja had dis- 
 charg'ed me. I answered that the King*, being- mewed up in the 
 Balla Hassar, said he had no employment for camel men at pre- 
 sent. Eakeera, my new captor, took me to his house, where I 
 remained some time, hard-worked and ill-fed, as usual. While 
 tending' Fakeera's dhoombahs in the jung-les, I heard a youth 
 say, " Ukhbar has allowed the Fering'hees to depart to-day, and 
 our people are following' them from Cabul." Yv^'hen nig-ht came 
 on I went to the spot where I had deposited my rupees, and re- 
 g-ained possession of them. I set off after the British force, and 
 overtook it at Khoord Cabul, as it was setting' out from thence. 
 At Jug'dulluck the British force was g'irded round by Ukhbar 
 Khan's horsemen, who were killing' all they could. I extricated 
 myself from this scene of carnag'e, and soug'ht safety once more 
 iu the hill tops. I remained a day hig-h up in the hills. I had 
 tasted no food for twenty-six hours from the time I made my last 
 insufficient meal. I was benumbed by the cold. I could no 
 long-er contend with the never-ending' dang'crs and hardships 
 which beset me. I wished for death to release me from suffer- 
 ing's novv^ become intolerable. I descended to the roadside, deter- 
 mined to declare myself to the first Affg'hans who approached, 
 and court the blow of some pitying' sword. I saw a party ap- 
 proach, and concluded the hour of my death had arrived. The 
 party turned out to be five Hindoo Cutries ; these Cutries said, 
 " As you are a Hindoo, we will save your life 3'ou must pay us 
 for (loiug- so, and to make sure of it we will exact pay- 
 ment beforehand." They then searched me and took the 100 
 rupees out of my cummerbund, and returned me ten of them — 
 tliey conducted me to a Dhurmsalah in which there was a Hindoo
 
 58 
 
 Fakhir. His protection T also soug-ht, and g*ave him my remain- 
 ing" ten rupees. He dressed me up in the red dress of a Eakhir, 
 and rubbed wood ashes over my face. I was to pass for his chela, 
 or disciple; and he said I was to accompany him in the character 
 of such on a pilg-rimag'e he proposed making- to Hurdwar. A 
 party of fruit merchants shortly after arrived. The Fakhir, the 
 cutries, and myself joined them. We descended the hig-h 
 road considerably to the left of Peshawar. I beg"g"ed my way, 
 until I g"ot to Sir Jasper NicolFs Camp, one march this side of 
 Loodianah. 
 
 The sketch I have drawn shows pretty correctly, I am con- 
 vinced, Char-ee-kar and all it embraces — you hadtaug"ht me. how 
 to make such sketches. You have known me many years, and 
 yoLi know if I ever told you a lie or broug'htyou false information. 
 You will therefore attach such credit to my tale as your apprecia- 
 tion of my character, so familiar to you, may adjudg-e. 
 (True translation.) 
 
 T. MacSherry, Major, 30th N. I., 
 T/ate Goorkha Recruiting- Officer, S. S. ¥. 
 
 Simla, March '6\st, 1 843. 
 
 APPENDIX E. . 
 
 Narrative of Mohun Beer, a Moonshee in the emioloy of Major 
 Eldrecl Potiingcr, ■ CB. The original statement, corrected hj 
 Sir R. Shahes'pear . 
 
 The city of Char-ee-kar in Kohistan is about 46 miles direct 
 north of Cabool, In November, 1841, there was a Cantonment 
 about half a mile north of the city, in which was stationed the 4th 
 Reg-iment of Shah Shoojah^s Infantry (742 strong-) and 3 of H M.'s. 
 g-uns, which with their men had been in the service of Dost 
 Mahomed Khan. 
 
 The officers present with the reg-iment were Captain Codring-- 
 ton, commanding*; Lieut. Haug-hton, Adjutant, Lieut. Salusbury, 
 Quarter Master; and Ensig-n Rose ; there was also a Serjeant 
 Major by name Burns, and a Quarter Master Serjeant named 
 Hanrahan. The fort of Lug-hmani is about one and a half miles 
 from the Cantonments, and in it resided at the time now alluded
 
 59 
 
 to Major E Potting-er, C. B., Political Ag-ent; Lieut. Rattray, Asst. 
 Political Agent, and Mr. Asst. Surgeon. The Eort was a square 
 of about 50 paces,-^ the walls of mud of considerable thickness 
 and about 60t feet high. 
 
 The Cantonment was dependent for its supply of water on a 
 water course; and the destruction of this small force by the Kohis- 
 tanees appears to have been mainly caused by their having 
 turned off the stream into another channel. 
 
 On the morning* of 3rd November, 1841, about 9 o'clock, I saw 
 about 3,000 Kohistanees collected round the Fort Lughmani ; 
 their chief said, " They are all our people, and we have brought 
 them here to go with Mr. Eattray and fight with Meer Musjadee, 
 near Ak Sural, about 16 miles from Lughmani. " Each of them 
 had a gun; some were loaded before they arrived, and some were 
 loading when I saw them; about 17 chiefs were sitting in a tent 
 with Major E. Pottinger and Mr. Eattray in a small garden 
 beyond the Fort. About 1 o'clock p. m. three of the chiefs said to 
 Mr. Eattray, " You must take care and not come out to see people, 
 or they will kill you; they only came here for that purpose, and 
 to take this fort; after which they will attack the Cantonments." 
 
 Mr. Eattray said, " They have all eaten our salt, and could 
 never be guilty of such an act. " Half an hour afterwards, Mr. 
 Eattray came from the Fort, and told me to come along with him 
 to see these Kohistanees. I accompanied, with his Mirza and a 
 Chuprassie. 
 
 When ]\Ir. Eattray came near them, all tlie chiefs paid their 
 respects to him saying, " Inshallah, we shall go to-morrow and 
 tight with Meer Musjadee. '' Mr. E. said, " Very good, if you go, 
 1 will give you some sowars.'' Mr. E. then turned to go back to the 
 Fort, but Jubber Khan asked him to look at his men, to which he 
 agreed and turned back again. When he had taken about six or 
 seven steps, one of the Kohistanees called him by name, and ran 
 at him, tiring his gnu at Mr. Eattray, who turned and ran towards 
 the Fort. I, the Mirza, and the chuprassie all ran towards the 
 Fort. When I had nearh' reached it, I looked back and saw Mr. 
 Eattray lying down on the plain. I ran again towards him; and 
 when near him he called me, and told me to take hold of him and 
 hell) I'in^ iiito the Fort, l^irectly I took hold of his hand, about 
 
 ->:-IU'ally '100 yards.— .I.e. 11. 
 
 -|- Oiu'i'y, six leet. They wero in some places nul more tJuui six or seven feet ; 
 and at the ollicers' quarters — the highest point — probablv not more than twenty feet 
 hii^h,— J. C. H,
 
 50 Kohistanees fired, and Mr Eattray received a ball in his fore- 
 head; I then ran back and g-otinto the Fort^ where I found Major 
 E. Potting-er looking- towards the Kohistanees and firing' at them. 
 About half-past 4 p. m. Adjutant Haug-hton came to the Fort 
 with two companies, and attacking- the Kohistanees, killed 40 or 
 50., driving* the rest towards the iiills. Captain Codring"ton left 
 about 60 sepoys in the Fort, and returned with the remainder to 
 Cantonments. 
 
 The next morning" (4th November) the Kohistanees collected 
 about twelve or thirteen thousand men on the hills. Lieutenants 
 Salusbury and Haug-hton came out with two companies and one 
 g-un, attacked, defeated, and dispersed the Kohistanees, but Mr. 
 Salusbury was very badly wounded by a g-un shot wound in the 
 g-roin."^" When Major E. Potting-er saw the enemy running- away, 
 he told me to take 25 sowars and join Lieut. Haug-hton, which I 
 did. Lieut. Tlaug'hton told me to send 12 of the sowars to Mr. 
 Salusbury, and to take 13 to Captain Codring-ton in Cantonments. 
 When I arrived, Captain Codring-ton told me to remain, but to 
 send the sowars after the enemy. When Lieut. Haug-hton and 
 Salusbury had expended all their ammunition, they returned to 
 Cantonment, and during- the nig-lit Lieutenant Salusbury died. 
 
 During- the whole of this day we were fig-h ting- near Canton- 
 ments, and that nig-ht the Kohistanees went back to the Fort 
 Lug-hmani, which they surrounded and beg-an to undermine. 
 There were about 24 hostag-es, sons of different chiefs, in the 
 Fort, and we had there also 10,000 rupees of treasure. Major 
 Potting-er and the Doctor, with their servants and 60 sepoys, stole 
 out of the fort at nig-ht and crept up to Cantonments, where they 
 arrived about 8 o'clock. A¥hen the hostag-es saw our party g-oing- 
 away they remained quiet, because they thoug-ht that if they 
 made a noise, the Kohistanees would come in and divide the trea- 
 sure. When the hostag-es had divided the treasure, they opened 
 the larg-e g-ate, and called out to the Kohistanees to come in. On 
 entering-, all the chiefs exclaimed, " We have beaten them, and 
 to-morrow we will take the Cantonments, " 
 
 On the morning- of the 6th, Major Potting'er sallied out of the 
 Cantonments with a g-un and two companies, and took up a posi- 
 tion near a nullah from where he beg'un to fire at the enemy, but 
 in half an hour lie was wounded by a ball in his left foot ; he 
 then took the g-un back to Cantonments and left two companies. 
 
 *Shot ihroiiL'h tlic back and sloniach.— .1, C. 11.
 
 61 
 
 When Captain Codring-ton saw that Major Potting-er was wounded, 
 he went out to the two corapanierf, but was very severely 
 wounded by a shot in the back. All his sepoys beg'an to cry for 
 him ; we were figditing' with them until evening-. About 50 or GO 
 sepoys were wounded this day, during- the whole of which we 
 had sufficient water. Captain Codring-ton was able to walk into 
 Cantonments, but fell down before he reached his house and asked 
 for water; we carried him and laid him on the same bed as Major 
 Potting-er^ when he asked for pen, ink and paper, and wrote a 
 letter to his wife whose picture he also g-ave to Major Potting'er. 
 He ling-ered on until the nig-ht of the 7th, when he died. We 
 huried him and Lieut. Salusbury in one grave. During- the nig-ht 
 neither our men or the enemy fired. 
 
 On the morning- of the 6th, the fig-htiug- recommenced and con- 
 tinued until evening-. That nig-ht we had water; on the morning- 
 of the 7th, Lieut. liaug-hton defeated the enemy, and drove them 
 about a mile from Cantonments, and we thoug-ht that they would 
 not return any more that day. Serjeant Major Burns was shot in 
 the g-roin, and died ; and a g-reat many sepoys and non-commis- 
 sionned officers and a Jemadar were killed : we had very little 
 water that nig-ht, the enemy remained about one and a half miles 
 from us, and continued firing-* at us, and we returned the fire all 
 the nig-ht throug^h. 
 
 On the morning- of the 8th, Lieut. Haug-hton sallied out with 2 
 companies, and defeated the enemy and returned to Cantonments 
 with his men. Lieut. Haug'hton served out the water with his 
 own hands this morning-, quarter of a seer to each man. We 
 were fig-hting- until the evening-, but at nig*ht we had not much 
 firing- from the enemy, nor did we fire. 
 
 On the 9th, the firing- commenced ag-ain very sharply ; this day 
 a g-reat many sepoys were killed and wounded ; the sepoys had 
 very little water, a quarter of seer to each ; the enemy went to 
 the city of Char-ee-kar that nig-ht. 
 
 On the morning" of the 10th, we had no firing-, but in the even- 
 ing- both parties commenced. Ensig-n Eose went out with two 
 companies and killed about 60 Kohistanees, andbroug'htin water, 
 and one of their standards and three or foui' matchlocks. 
 
 On the morning- of the lllh, we had very little firing-, and we 
 thong'b.t they would now g'o away and not attack us ag-ain. At 
 
 * Lonir shots ! Some niistakc here. — J. C. II.
 
 62 
 
 iiig-lit they fired at iis to prevent our g-etting* water. That clay 
 the sepoys had not a drop of water, nor until the 14th. 
 
 On the morning- of the 14-th, Major Potting-er/ Lieut. Haug*hton, 
 Mr. Rose and the Doctor decided on leaving" the Cantonments at 
 nig-ht, and retreating- to Cahool. About 2 r. m. the jemadar of 
 the g-oiandaze heard of the arrang-ement, and determined to try 
 and save himself by g-oing- to the enemy. He rushed on Lieut. 
 Haughton and cut him on the hand with his sword, and then went 
 over with his men to the enemy. About 8 p. m. we quitted Can- 
 tonments and commenced our retreat to Cabool. At about 4 miles 
 we came to some water, which the sepoys rushed to drink, and 
 here it was decidedf that Major Potting-er and Lieut. Ilaug-hton, 
 being- both wounded, should ride on in front with me, leaving- the 
 reg-iment to follow behind. Major Potting-er placed Mr. Rose, 
 Quarter Master, and Quarter Master Serjeant Hendrig-on§ in 
 charg-e of the reg-iment and g-ave orders to them to come on 
 quickly. When we arrived near Ak Serai, we found a larg-e 
 nullah in which we concealed ourselves all day, we then mounted 
 our horses and rode over the hills, and at 4 a. m. on the IGth we 
 arrived at the Cantonments at Cabool. 
 
 (Sig-ned) H. M. LAWRENCE, 
 
 A.A.a.G. 
 
 ■5^'Mohun Beer was Moonshee to Major Pottinger, and naturally mentions liim 
 first.— J. C. H. 
 
 -J- 1 never heard of any such proposition, and certainly would not have consented 
 to leave my men if Ihad ; besides they were our only protection. — J. C. H. 
 
 § Hanrahan. This is certainly a mistake. Pottinger led the advance, Rose and 
 the Sergeant brought up the rear, being both unwounded ; the Sergeant's wound 
 had healed.— J. C. II. 
 
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