fighting-with the Wali, who is somewhere on the Girishk road on the look-out for him. I know the country about there tolerably well, as I was with Colonel Malcolmson in the smart little affair we had with the hillmen last year. Ayub would probably at this season be able to ford the Helmund at or near Hyderabad, and would then move by the valley of Maiwand, where supplies of all kinds for his troops would be abundant. When I rode through Maiwand with Malcolmson last year the fort was half tumbling down and the village in ruins, but I hear it has since been rebuilt. I need not tell you that Kandahar is somewhat excited at the present time, and that many of the richest merchants are leaving with their wives and treasure, not feeling at all secure or comfortable at the menaces sent on by Ayub, whose emissaries are promising unlimited loot and vengeance to those who will help to drive us out. The defences of the town of Kandahar leave much to be desired, but General Primrose has already made some well-planned additions to the works, while he is collecting supplies to provision the citadel in case of a siege.

WITH GENERAL BURROWS-OPINIONS OF THE WALI.

Singuri (12 miles from Kandahar), W., July 6.

As one of your friends at Kandahar tells me he wrote to you on the 27th ult., giving you details of General Burrows' small force, destined for Girishk and the Helmund, and to try conclusions with Ayub Khan, known to be advancing in force from Herat, I need not

enlarge upon these matters, but merely state that at a final parade of all ranks, previous to our march, our field state was as follows:-1 battery, 6 guns, E B., R.H.A., 220 men, Major Blackwood; three squadrons, 300 sabres, 3rd Light Cavalry, Major Currie; 2 squadrons, 220 sabres, 3rd Scinde Horse, Colonel Malcolmson; 6 companies, 512 bayonets, 66th Regiment, Colonel Galbraith; 6 companies 1st Bombay Grenadiers, 515 bayonets, Colonel Anderson; 6 companies 19th Bombay Native Infantry (Jacob's Rifles), 512 bayonets, Colonel Mainwaring; 40 sappers: making a total, irrespective of officers, of 740 sabres and 1579 bayonets, or in all 2319 men. Brigadier-General Reynolds Scott Burrows, Bombay Native Infantry, is in command of our force. Although he obtained his first commission as ensign as far back as 1844, he has, I am told, never, till now, seen any active service, but has held the reputation of being a capital staff officer. Our brigade-major is Captain Percy Heath, Bombay Staff Corps. Of the composition of our force, I may say that Major Blackwood's battery is as smart and well-ordered as such officers as Captain Slade and Lieutenants Maclaine, E. G. Osborn, and N. P. Powell, can make, and the horses are in fine condition. The old 66th, or Berkshires, have not, perhaps, the stamp of men they paraded the last time they left India, in 1865; and it must be allowed, in all honesty, that short service has not improved the appearance of our companies, to say nothing of the extreme youth of our non-commissioned officers. But the regiment, though lacking its former physique and inch measurement, is, under its present leader, rapidly improving. Our native regiments are good specimens of such troops. The 19th Bombay N.I., better known as 'Jacob's Rifles,'

have always held a high position in the opinion of old Indians, and are at present fairly efficient. But having said all this, it is impossible not to allow that the native regiments are most imprudently and injudiciously underofficered. In the corps I have named, the full complement, small as it is, of commissioned officers is never with the corps, and the consequences are, that in moments of emergency or danger the men are left to themselves, and lose their cohesion as a body.

We received our orders to take part in this expedition some ten or more days ago, and since then have looked forward with some excitement to the campaign before us, with every confidence in the result, but with a full conviction that ours will not be a mere promenade militaire. Kandahar we regard as a place we are not likely to return to, as our movements will probably be towards the Indian frontier should the campaign be successfully closed before the winter sets in. Meanwhile let me give you a sketch of the movements of our opponent as reported to General Primrose by the most reliable authorities. Ayub Khan, we know, left Herat on or about June 19, having with him 4500 regular infantry, 1500 regular cavalry, and 36 guns, together with a force of irregular but most efficient horsemen, drawn from the fiercest and most warlike of the western tribes-fellows whose desire and hope to kill an infidel lead them to look upon danger and death as but the prelude to Paradise. This latter force forms his advanced guard, and is supposed to be one day's march in front of the main body. Of the Khan's artillery we know that it consists of almost every species and pattern, some of English, but most of Afghan make. His proclamations to his troops reached us by spies in due course, and

therein Ayub tells his soldiers of the wealth and plunder to be gained when the English are slaughtered in or before the western capital. As soon as this news was confirmed, Wali Mahomed, the native governor, volunteered to go forth as far as the Helmund and drive back the invader. He was accordingly allowed to march westward with 4000 men, chiefly Afghans, recruited near Kandahar. The Wali, however, soon after he had marched, sent us word back that he was more than doubtful of the fidelity of his men, and his application for immediate reinforcements was doubtless the cause of our expedition being organized. I applied for, and obtained permission to accompany the Wali, who is an old friend of mine, for a couple of days' marches on his road to Girishk, and found him an intelligent and most agreeable companion. He is an admirable genealogist, and told the many points of relationship regarding the various pretenders to the Afghan throne, of which before I knew but little. Ayub he considers one of the most talented of Shere Ali's sons. His mother was the daughter of that same Mohmund chief who was so civil to us at the commencement of the war at Lalpura. was born in 1851, and consequently is now but thirty years of age. He was first prominently noted in the campaigns of 1867 and 1868, when the exploits and successes of his brother, Yakub Khan, placed their father, Shere Ali, on the throne. When Yakub and Shere Ali quarrelled, in 1871, Ayub would not give up his friendship for the former, and joined him with his adherents in attacking Herat, and in expelling the Ameer's Governor; and up to the end of 1874, when Yakub ruled there as an independent Prince, Ayub assisted his brother in the government. When, under British advice and the

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promise of safety from Shere Ali, Yakub Khan was lured to Cabul, he left Ayub in charge of Herat; but the skill of the Ameer's general, Omar Khan, and the prompt measures taken by him, were too much for the young prince, and he was compelled to fly for safety from his father's vengeance to Persia, where he was well and honourably received by the Shah, who granted him. safe residence and a handsome pension to uphold his rank. Here he lived until the British power made the Afghan kingdom crumble away, and until he saw in the march of events the opportunity he had waited for to restore himself to power. Appearing suddenly before Herat, the Governor there gave him welcome and refuge as the son of Shere Ali, his master; but Ayub soon so far consolidated his power in the west that he was enabled to send troops against us to the north. These, however, arrived too late, as the Treaty of Gundamuk had been signed.

After we had withdrawn our troops from Cabul last year Ayub did not leave Herat, doubtless preferring his independence there to the subordinate rank he I would have held under his brother's rule. From the commencement of the present campaign Ayub has not been much heard of, but he has evidently not been idle, if the organization and efficiency of his troops are as stated to us.

'Abdurrahman,' said I; 'what is his lineal descent, and what do you think of him, Wali ?'

'He is the lineal descendant beyond all doubt, and the senior representative of Dost Mahomed, the great Ameer, who died in 1863, just a fortnight after he captured the city of Herat. Abdurrahman is the eldest son of Afzul Khan, who was himself the eldest son of