whilst two of the columns of infantry penetrated his line near the same point; and the third forced back his left from its support on the river, into the stream of which some of his horse and foot were driven. The Affghans made repeated attempts to check our advance, by a smart fire of musquetry, by throwing forward heavy bodies of horse, which twice threatened in force the detachments of Foot under Captain Havelock, and by opening on us three guns screened by a garden wall, and said to have been served under the personal superintendence of the Sirdhar; but in a short time they were dislodged from every point of their positions, their cannon taken, and their camp involved in a general conflagration. The battle was over, and the enemy in full retreat in the direction of Lughman, by about Seven, A.M. We have made ourselves masters of two cavalry standards; recaptured four guns lost by the Cabul army and Gundamuck forces -the restoration of which to our Government is matter of much honest exultation among our troops -seized and destroyed a great quantity of materiel and ordnance stores, and burnt the whole of the enemy's tents. In short, the deIn short, the defeat of Mahomed Akbar in open field, by the troops whom he had boasted of blockading, has been complete and signal."

This was indeed an important victory, and reflected the greatest honour upon General Sale and his gallant band. It was, however, purchased at a costly price, by the fall of Brigadier-Colonel Dennie, whose loss was truly described by Sir R. Sale, in his dispatch, as "a public calamity."

After his signal defeat, Akbar Khan retired in the direction of

Cabul, but his troops dropped off from him until he was almost entirely deserted by them. His prisoners, male and female, were confined in separate forts within the valley of Tezeen, and were, upon the whole pretty well treated. Here General Elphinstone died on the 23rd of April. When the junction between the forces of General Pollock and General Sale took place at Jellalabad, the garrison was suffering severely from want of provisions; but plentiful supplies began to pour in from Peshawur.

In the meantime, the monarch whom we had placed on the throne of Cabul, Shah Soojah, had been murdered near his capital. It is. by no means certain whether he was or was not implicated in the insurrection which broke out on the 2nd of November; but afterwards, in the month of April of this year, he was persuaded by some of the Sirdhars of the Barukzye family, to order a general levy of troops to be made at Cabul, and to march on Jellalabad. It is not clear what was the object of this -nor what was the real intention of Shah Soojah. He gave, however, great offence to these chieftains, by appointing as commander of the army one whom they disapproved of. Perhaps, there were other causes of disgust; and there is no doubt that Shah Soojah was by no means popular at Cabul. The Barukzye Sirdhars, at any rate, as relations of the deposed king, Dost Mahommed, must have regarded him with dislike. Whatever was the cause, it is certain, that when Shah Soojah was on his way to join the troops he had levied, who were mustered at Seea Sung, not far from Cabul, he was fired upon by fifty Juzdilchees, who

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were placed in ambush, and died immediately. His youngest son, Futteh Jung, escaped to the Bala Hissar, and was proclaimed king by one party-while the Barukzye Sirdhars formed another party, and opposed him. But the accounts of what really took place at this juncture in Cabul, are by no means clear; and we know little more than the fact that Shah Soojah was murdered, and that great confusion ensued upon his death.

General Pollock remained at Jellalabad upwards of four months, and it was not until the 20th of August that he commenced his march towards Cabul. In the meantime the troops suffered se verely from sickness, owing to the heat and general insalubrity of the climate. Dysentery and fever carried off great numbers. There was a want of proper clothing for the men, and their state for a long time is described as one of great discomfort. It was requisite also that a large supply of camels should be procured to carry the camp equipage, and it was found impossible to collect a sufficient number of these animals. The long period of inaction was felt by the troops to be very trying, and the utmost anxiety was felt to march forward on Cabul. The heat was so great, and the want of tents such, that holes were dug in the ground and covered over with flat roofs, and in these officers and soldiers took refuge and lived. Forage also was very scarce, and the cost of it enormous. In the meantime Akbar Khan sent one of his prisoners, Captain Mackenzie, to Jellalabad, to treat for the liberation of those whom he detained. But his proposals were such as could not be entertained. He wished to make our evacuation of Aff.

ghanistan the condition of restoring the prisoners. To this no other answer than a refusal could be given, as, independently of any other consideration, it would have been in the highest degree derogatory to our honour to have purchased the freedom of those who were unjustly detained by abandoning the country where we had recently experienced so signal a disaster. Afterwards, in the month of July, Akbar Khan again sent another British officer with proposals, which were equally abortive. All negotiations, therefore, for the liberation of the British officers and ladies who fell into the hands of Akhbar Khan during the calamitous retreat from Cabul, failed. They were afterwards removed from Tezeen, where they had been originally confined in different forts, to places of security between Cabul and Bameean. The accounts given of their treatment are such as reflect honour upon the Affghan chiefs. An extract from a letter written by one of the captives states, "The Sirdhar's (i.e. Akbar Khan's) treatment of us as been, from first to last, most kind : no European power could have treated prisoners of war better." Akbar Khan himself fell back upon Cabul, where for some time he kept Futteh Jung closely besieged in the Bala Hissar. The state of affairs at this time in Cabul was one of anarchy and confusion, and it is difficult to know what was really the position of parties. It appears, however, that Akbar Khan got possession of the Bala Hissar, and allowed Futteh Jung to retain the title of Shah while he acted as his Vizier. But the successful Sirdhar was by no means all-powerful, as much jealousy of him was felt by some powerful Cabul fami

lies, and especially by the Kuzzil. bashes, a tribe of Persian extraction, who preserved a kind of armed neutrality between the contending parties. Great apprehension, however, seems to have prevailed at Cabul, lest General Pollock and the British troops should advance upon it, and avenge the butchery of the unfortunate victims of the retreat in the preceding November.

On the 20th of August General Pollock advanced from Jellalabad. Previous to this he issued a mani. festo to the chiefs at Cabul, stating his intention of marching upon that city, and promising the chiefs, that if they restored the prisoners, their property would be protected and the city spared, but that if they allowed Akbar Khan to remove them, they must all be held responsible for the consequences, and that every house in Cabul should be razed to the ground. The forces that marched from Jellalabad consisted of the following: The 9th and 31st Foot, 26th, 60th and 33rd N. I., 1st Cavalry, one squadron 5th Cavalry, and one squadron 10th Cavalry, two companies Sappers, Mountain Train, Captain Mackeson's Bilders, and the Jezailchee Corps. A few troops were left in Jellalabad, under the command of Brigadier Eckford, and at Dhak. ka, under Brigadier Wild.

The first conflict with the enemy took place on the 23rd of August, at Mammoo Khail, about two miles from Gundamuck, where about 12,000 Affghanistan troops were defeated under the command of the chiefs Hadji Ali and Khyrrollah Khan, who retired upon Cabul. At Futteabad, on the 1st of Sep tember, Futteh Jung suddenly made his appearance in the British camp. He came, meanly clad,

with only three followers, to seek refuge amongst our troops from Akbar Khan, having made his es cape from the dungeon in which he was confined in the Bala Hissar, by that chieftain, when he gained intelligence of our advance from Jellalabad. He was concealed for several days by the Kuzzilbashes in Cabul, and had the greatest difficulty in making his way to the British army, having been fired at several times by the troops of Akbar Khan, who were posted along the different Passes. He was received in the British camp with the honours due to his rank as the sovereign of Cabul.

Major-General Pollock advanced from Gundamuck on the 7th of September, and on the 8th reached the Soork-ab (a small river), from which he had to traverse the very formidable Pass, in order to arrive at Jugdulluk, which is twenty miles distant.

On approaching the hills which command the road through the Pass, it was perceived that their summits were occupied by a considerable number of men, in separate bodies, under different chiefs, their position being one of singular strength and difficulty of approach. The hills formed an amphitheatre, inclining to the left of the road on which the troops were halted, and the enemy were thus able to fire into the column, a deep ravine preventing contact with them. Their fire was heavy, causing several casualties, and the guns and even the shells had little effect upon them. A single division of the force thereupon scaled the heights, and drove the enemy from their position, which they quitted, however, only to occupy a still more formidable one,the summit of a high and apparently inaccessible

mountain, where they planted their standards and seemed determined to make a stand. "Seldom have soldiers had a more arduous task to perform," observes their commander, "and never was an undertaking of the kind surpassed in execution." These heights were assaulted by two columns, under Captain Wilkinson and Captain Broadfoot, and the Ghilzies, not daring to encounter the attack, betook themselves to flight, carrying away their standards, and leaving our troops in possession of this last and least assailable stronghold.

Akbar Khan was not personally present in this engagement, but a great number of the principal Affghan chiefs were there. This was an auspicious prelude to the important and decisive action which soon followed. But the onward march of the British forces lay through a very difficult country, of which we extract the following account, from a contemporary publication:

Rugged ascents and descents, ravines, water-courses, and narrow valleys, are rarely diversified by level ground. From Jugdulluk to the end of the Khoord Cabul Pass, a distance of forty-two miles, there is a succession of defiles so difficult that they are said to beggar description. The Puree Duree Pass, which is the bed of the Jugdulluk river, is about three miles and a half in extent, narrow, and winding several times almost at right angles. Its average width is about forty yards, but there are three places where it is less than ten feet, and one only six, so that if an animal fell, the road would be stopped till it could be removed. The almost perpendicular cliffs on both sides appear as if threatening de

struction. A small party of armed men,' says Major Hough, would stop the passage of any force that entered it.' To turn this Pass it is necessary to cross the mountains by a road to the west of the Pass, which is not, however, practicable for guns. The Huft Kothul, or Seven Passes, are so many ranges of hills over which the road runs; one of the ascents is nearly a mile long, and very steep, and of such a form that an enemy might dreadfully annoy a column, by a flanking fire. The Khoord Cabul Pass is formed by two chains of high mountains, between which runs the river, confined within a very narrow channel. The length of the Pass is about six miles; the width not more than from 100 to 200 yards, the road crossing the river twenty-three times."

General Pollock advanced without meeting any opposition through the narrow Pass of Puree Duree to Kutta Jung, distant seven miles and a half from Jugdulluck, and, thence continuing his march, reached the Tezeen valley on the 11th. Here the enemy, under the command of Akbar Khan himself, occupied the Pass in considerable force, and while the British troops halted on the 12th to allow the cattle to recover from the effects of the fatigue of their forced march, they were attacked by the Affghans, who came so close that it was necessary frequently to use the bayonet, and repel them. The enemy made several attempts on the picquets during the night, but without any success. The action which took place next day cannot be better detailed than in General Pollock's own words:

"The valley of Tezeen, where we were encamped, is completely encircled by lofty hills, and on the

morning of the 13th it was perceived that the Affghans had occupied in great force every height not already crowned by our troops. I commenced my march towards the mouth of the Tezeen Pass, where I had left two guns, two squadrons of Her Majesty's 3rd Dragoons, a party of the 1st Light Cavalry, and the 3rd Irregular Cavalry. The enemy's horse appeared in the valley, with the intention of falling upon the baggage; but it gives me very great pleasure to state, that the dragoons and native cavalry (regular and irregular) made a most brilliant charge, and with such effect, that the whole body of the enemy's force was completely routed, and a number of them cut up. The Pass of Tezeen affords great advantages to an enemy occupying the heights; and, on the present occasion, Mahomed Akbar neglected nothing to render its natural difficulties as formidable as numbers could make it. Our troops mounted the heights, and the Affghans, contrary to their general custom, advanced to meet them, and a desperate struggle ensued; indeed, their defence was so obstinate, that the British bayonet, in many instances, alone decided the contest. The light company of Her Majesty's 9th Foot, led by Captain Lushington (who, I regret to say, was wounded in the head), ascending the hills on the left of the Pass, under a heavy cross fire, charged and overthrew their opponents, leaving several horses and their riders, supposed to be chiefs, dead on the hill. The slaughter was considerable, and the fight continued during the greater part of the day, the enemy appearing resolved that we should not ascend the Huft Kothul. One spirit seemed to pervade all, and a de

termination to conquer overcame the obstinate resistance of the enemy, who were at length forced from their numerous and strong positions, and our troops mounted the Huft Kothul, giving three cheers when they reached the summit. Here, Lieutenant Cunningham, with a party of sappers, pressed the enemy so hard, that they left, in their precipitation, a 24pounder howitzer and limber, carrying of the draft bullocks. Having heard that another gun had been seen, and concluding that it could not have gone very far, I detached a squadron of dragoons under Captain Tritton, and two horse artillery guns under Major Delafosse, in pursuit; the gun (a 12-pounder howitzer), with bullocks sufficient for the two guns, were soon captured. The dragoons again got among the enemy, and succeeded in cutting up many of them. Captain Broadfoot, with the sappers, advanced, and with the dragoons, happened to fall in with another part of the enemy, of whom upwards of twenty were killed. I have ascertained there were about 16,000 men in the field opposed to me, a considerable portion of whom was cavalry. Mahomed Akbar Khan, Mahomed Shah Khan, Ameen Oolla, and many other chiefs, with their followers, were present."

This was a great and decisive victory, and Akbar Khan made no further resistance to the triumphant advance of the British troops. They traversed the Khoord Cabul Pass without opposition, and finally, on the 15th of September, encamped on the race ground at Cabul. The next day General Pollock, with a body of troops, accompanied by the Prince Futteh Jung, marched to the Bala Hissar (the