be regarded as making its advances with objects not friendly to the British Government, could not reasonably refuse to receive a mission from a Power with which he had been in continual alliance.

In the Council of the Governor-General, Lord Lytton did not anticipate any such refusal, and Her Majesty's Government saw no reason to question the soundness of his Excellency's opinion on this point, based as it must have been on the best available information.

The anticipations of both the Viceroy and the British Government were, however, disappointed by the event. In a friendly letter carried to Cabul by the Nawab Gholam Hussein Khan, Lord Lytton informed the Ameer of the date on which Sir Neville Chamberlain was to leave Peshawur, and ample time was given to Shere Ali to issue orders to his local officials for the reception of the mission. It was also intimated to the Ameer that a refusal to accord a free passage to the mission would be regarded as an act of hostility. The orders, however, sent to the Afghan officials at Ali Musjid were the reverse of what our Viceroy had a right to expect, and Major Cavagnari, who went in advance of our Envoy, was distinctly informed that any attempt to enter Afghan territory would be resisted by force, of which an ostentatious display was at once made.

This conduct on the part of the Ameer was in all respects without justification. He was aware, from various communications addressed to him by the former Viceroy, that the Russian Government had given assurances to Her Majesty's Government to regard his territories as quite beyond its sphere of action; he was also aware that the whole policy of the British

Government, since his accession to power, had been to strengthen in every way his authority and his power, while protecting him from foreign aggression. Although the methods adopted by our Government may not have been at all times in accordance with his own, he had received since his accession abundant evidences of good will, manifested by large gifts of money and arms, as well as by its successful efforts in obtaining from the Czar's Government its formal recognition of a fixed boundary, agreeable to himself, between his kingdom. and the neighbouring khanates; his subjects had been allowed to pass freely throughout India, to the great benefit of the trade and commerce of his country; and in no single instance had the Ameer himself, or any of his people, been treated unjustly or inhospitably within British jurisdiction.

By every bond of international courtesy, as well as by the treaty engagement of 1855 existing between the two countries, binding him to be the friend of our friends and the enemy of our enemies, the Ameer, Shere Ali, was bound to a line of conduct the reverse of that which, to his cost and destruction, he adopted.

Lord Lytton, in reporting the slight which had been put upon our Empire by Shere Ali, expressed his conviction, and that of the Indian Government, that this act deprived the Ameer of all further claim upon the forbearance of the British Government, and necessitated instant action. Her Majesty's Government, however, were unwilling to accept the evasive letter brought from Cabul by our messenger, Nawab Gholan Hussein Khan, as the final answer to our Government, and it was accordingly determined to give the Ameer a short time for reconsideration.

Although our Government fully acknowledged, as binding on them, the pledges given by Sir Neville Chamberlain to the friendly chiefs and people who undertook the safe-conduct of his mission, they decided to make one more effort to avert the calamities of war, and with this object the Viceroy was instructed to address the Ameer a demand, in temperate language, requiring a full and suitable apology, within a given time, for the affront which he had offered to the British Government, the reception of a permanent British Mission within his territories, and reparation for any injury inflicted by him on the tribes who attended Sir Neville Chamberlain and Major Cavagnari, as well as an undertaking not to molest them hereafter. These instructions were promptly carried into effect by the Government of Lord Lytton, and the Ameer was distinctly informed that, unless a clear and satisfactory reply were received by the 20th of November, the Viceroy would, in Her Majesty's name, be compelled to consider his intentions as hostile, and to treat him as an enemy. A précis of the above facts was written by Lord Cranbrook (at that time the Secretary of State for India), and was not only sent to India for the Viceroy's information, but was published, by Her Majesty's command, for the general information of the public, who might certainly, on its perusal, have reason to say, 'Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.'

The ultimatum having been allowed by Shere Ali to expire on the 20th November, war was declared, and the frontier crossed on the 21st by three columns, acting on the Khyber, the Kurram, and the Quetta lines of attack. The objective point of the two northern columns was Cabul, that of the southern Kandahar.

Ali Musjid, at the mouth of the Khyber, fell on the 21st, and the Kurram stream was crossed at dawn on the same day. The Peiwar Kotal was stormed early in December; Jellalabad was occupied, and General Donald Stewart was pushing on through the Bolan, the Pishin, and the Khojak, towards Kandahar, when the arrival of winter frost and snow caused a pause in operations.

Meanwhile, the death of Shere Ali caused his son Yakub to treat with us, and the peace of Gundamuck was signed on May 27th, 1879.

Then came the massacre of our Embassy, and the taking of Cabul by General Roberts, and other operations which led up to the Kandahar campaign of 1880, the records of which are here given from the rough jottings of officers engaged therein.

WALLER ASHE.

UNIV. OF

PERSONAL RECORDS OF THE

KANDAHAR CAMPAIGN.

CHAPTER I.

IN GARRISON WITH GENERAL PRIMROSE.

Kandahar, June 27.

SINCE I last wrote to you from this ancient capital of the Durani Empire, and where are buried the kings of that race, many changes have taken place in our garrison, which, I frankly confess, is considered by many of us as far too weak for the duties we may yet have to perform. Built on a level plain covered with cultivation, surrounded by lofty mud walls, with large circular towers on the flanks, and deep and wide ditches, having a circumference of nearly four miles, this place should be held by a much larger force than our General has now at his disposal. The city itself cannot at present be considered a powerful fortress, and although Colonel John Hills, our commanding Engineer, has considerably strengthened some of the outworks, there remains much to be done to render the place secure against such troops as we understand Ayub has collected during his advance from Herat. Thirty-six guns and fifteen strong regiments of infantry, together with a formidable cavalry force, are, it is reported on the best authority, under the Herat ruler; while an advanced brigade, under a good and

B