General Macpherson's brigade was advancing, a small reserve only was left in defence of the camp.

Baker's column advanced over the bare hills, flanked by steep rocky crags, easily defensible against any force, more than 1,500 feet in height; and carried the first position, though the Afghans, armed with Sniders and Enfields, kept up a continuous fire, and it was nearly two hours before they retreated to a second ridge, about six hundred yards in the rear. This position too was carried by the troops in successive rushes, supported by the fire of the mountain guns; and by 3.45 the enemy's defences were captured, or taken in reverse.

In the meantime Major White had turned his feigned, into a real attack on the Sang-i-Nawishtu defile, though there the enemy was strongly posted, and outnumbered his men ten to one. Finding that his artillery was powerless, he led his men in person from one steep ledge to another, till at length being opposed face to face by an overwhelming number of Afghans, he took a rifle, and shooting their leader dead, his followers fled, leaving four mountain guns behind them. He pursued them through the Pass, and effected a junction with General Baker in the rear of the enemy's position. By four o'clock, the Afghans were in complete rout, flying towards Cabul, with the loss of two standards, and all their guns (twenty pieces), three hundred killed and a vast number wounded. The British loss was twenty killed, and less than seventy wounded.

General Macpherson having arrived in the camp, Sir F. Roberts marched the next morning towards Cabul, and on October 8th. established himself in the cantonments of Sherpur, where seventy-three guns were taken,* and occupied the Bala Hissar, or citadel of Cabul.

The troops engaged in this affair, were the 9th. Lancers, 12th. Bengal Cavalry, 14th. Bengal Lancers, 5th. Punjaub Cavalry, the 67th., 72nd., and 92nd. Foot, Bengal Sappers and Miners, 23rd. and 28th. Bengal Infantry, 5th. Ghoorkas, 5th. Punjaub Infantry, one Battery R. H. A., and two Mountain Batteries.

Among the guns captured were seventeen Armstrongs, and an old brass Dutch piece, with the date 1625. How it got to Cabul is a mystery.

CABUL.

DECEMBER, 1879.

THOUGH the whole country was bitterly hostile to the British, for some weeks, with the exception of a skirmish or two, and an explosion of gunpowder in the Bala Hissar, by which Capt. Shafto, and several Ghoorkas were killed; the occupation of Cabul by Sir F. Roberts and his army remained undisturbed. In the beginning of December, a change took place. Instigated by an aged and fanatic Moollah, a chief called Mohammed Jan, and other leaders, the Afghans of the Maidan and Ghuznee districts, and of the Kohistan country to the north of Cabul, began to collect in thousands, with the intention of expelling or massacring the invaders of their country.

Sir F. Roberts at first was not aware of the strength of this combination, but knowing of their advance, and the importance of dispersing the tribes before they could effect a junction, two columns were formed to march out and attack the enemy, December 8th. One under General Macpherson, went towards Urghandeh, to meet the enemy coming from Maidan, and the other under General Baker, was dispatched vid Charasia, but also towards Maidan, with the object of intercepting the enemy in their anticipated retreat.

General Macpherson first met with the Kohistanees, who were marching to join Mohammed Jan, near Chardeh, and a sharp fight ensued. The guns did some execution, but the nature of the ground prevented the cavalry from being of any service. Mohammed Jan was now at the head of about ten thousand men, and succeeded in placing himself between General Macpherson and Cabul, and also, as it turned out, between his infantry, and the cavalry and guns moving to join him on the morning of December 11th. The four guns, escorted by a squadron of the 9th. Lancers, and forty-four men of the 14th. Bengal Lancers, under General Massey, after a four-mile march, fell in with the enemy, but as only about two thousand showed themselves, they were supposed to be a body of fugitives flying from either Macpherson or Baker.

Massey, without the orders of General Macpherson, at once attacked, but the fire from his guns had no effect in checking the advance of the enemy's masses, and the handful of cavalry, after two desperate charges, were compelled to retreat with the loss of twenty-seven killed, including four officers, and twenty-five wounded.* The guns being stuck in a water-course, were spiked and abandoned; but were afterwards retaken by Colonel Macgregor, on the arrival of Macpherson's column.

On seeing the advance of Macpherson's infantry, the Afghans ceased following the retreating cavalry, and rushed away direct for Cabul. Sir F. Roberts on this, started from Sherpur with the 72nd. regiment, to secure the defile barring the road to the city, and was but just in time to prevent its being taken. The steady fire of the Highlanders checked the advance of the enemy, and after half an hour's contest they retired, and occupied the heights to the south of the Bala Hissar.

Next day, General Macpherson dispatched Colonel Money with a detachment of the 67th., 72nd., the 3rd. Sikhs, and 5th. Ghoorkas, to drive the enemy from the heights to the south of Cabul, who had hidden from view five or six thousand men, and awaited the attack with confidence. After several hours of fighting the troops dislodged the Afghans from the low hill, but were too few to carry the position above.

On December 13th., General Baker, who had returned to Sherpur, acted in concert with Macpherson, and at eight in the morning left the cantonments and again attacked the enemy. After some hard fighting the ridge was carried by the 92nd. and Guides led by Major White, and the 72nd., 3rd. Sikhs, and 5th. Ghoorkas under Major Sym. While this was going on a large body of Afghans moved round towards Beni Hissar, so as to threaten the road to Sherpur, but they were dispersed by some dashing charges made by the Guides, Punjaub Cavalry, and 9th. Lancers, with the loss of Captain Butson and four men killed.

*The Rev. J. W. Adams, Chaplain to the Force, who had accompanied the troopers, gained the Victoria Cross for rescuing some men of the 9th Lancers, who had fallen into a deep ditch, he being all the time under a heavy fire, and up to his waist in water. Having dismounted in order to give more effectual assistance, he made his escape on foot, when the Afghans were within a few yards of him.

The position of the British, though victorious in the field, was becoming serious, as the enemy was continually reinforced by large numbers of men, and nothing daunted by their defeats, occupied the Asmai heights in force. On December 14th. this position was attacked by General Baker with a force of about sixteen hundred men of all arms, and four guns. After a desperate contest the enemy were driven from their first position, and the Asmai heights were carried. Scarcely had this been done, when a body of Afghans, from fifteen to twenty thousand strong, appeared on the plain, rushing onwards with frantic shouts and gesticulations, with the object of retaking the position just captured by General Baker, headed by a chosen leader, and Moollahs, in white raiment, shouting the war-cry of Islam:-" Allah! Ya Allah!" On they came, regardless of the shells which were pitched with great execution into them, and the volleys poured down from the hills just gained, with deadly effect.

The 5th. Punjaubees recoiled at their onset, and after an heroic resistance, in which Captain Spens of the 72nd. was killed in a hand to hand conflict, the column of Colonel Jenkins was compelled to retreat with the loss of two guns, but the rest of the position was held. Reinforcements presently arrived from Sherpur, the guns were recovered, and in a brilliant charge, made with twelve men, Captain Vousdon, of the Bengal Staff Corps, cut down five Afghans with his own hand, and gained the Victoria Cross.

It being signalled from the Bala Hissar, that bodies of the enemy were advancing from the north, south, and west, in overwhelming numbers, General Macpherson was ordered to fall back at once to Sherpur, and General Baker was directed to hold the position he had occupied since the morning, until all the troops from the heights were withdrawn. These movements were well executed with but little loss, and on the night of December 14th., all the British forces were concentrated in the cantonments of Sherpur, while the exultant Afghans re-occupied the Bala Hissar and the city of Cabul. The Sherpur cantonments had been built by Shere Ali for his own troops, but never occupied by them. The front towards Cabul was fortified by a loopholed wall, sixteen feet high, and about two thousand yards

long, with small semi-circular bastions at intervals, and a ditch; enclosing a range of barracks capable of accommodating five thousand men. In the rear were the steep Behmaru Hills, within the line of defence, and also fortified.

Sir F. Roberts, with admirable foresight, had before collected stores calculated to last for some months, emptying the granaries and stores of Cabul; so his force of seven thousand men of all arms, with twenty-three guns, including two gatlings, were not likely to feel the absolute want of the necessaries of life till reinforcements could arrive from India. The enemy occupied themselves for some days with plundering Cabul, and in preparing for a general attack; during which time Sir F. Roberts employed all his men in strengthening and perfecting the defences of Sherpur. There was skirmishing daily, till on December 23rd., the anniversary of the murder of Sir William Macnaghten, at the same spot in 1841, the long-prepared assault on Sherpur took place. Brigadier-General Gough was now rapidly advancing from Gundamuck with reinforcements, and the enemy felt that there was no time to be lost, if they meant to repeat the massacre of Elphinstone's army of 1842. On the preceding evening, some native scouts had informed the General, that the Afghans had provided themselves with scaling ladders capable of carrying two men abreast, and that at the break of day he would be attacked on all sides, the signal being the lighting of a great beacon on the Asmai heights above Cabul. At four in the morning the troops were on the alert, at six, a brilliant flame arose on the Asmai ridge, and with the hoarse shouts of many thousand voices, and the deafening rattle of innumerable drums, the attack commenced. Day had not yet broken, but the stars, and the snow lying around, gave light enough for the defenders to direct a most deadly fire on their frantic assailants, not one of whom came near enough to scale the wall. Till one p.m. the assaults lasted, when the cavalry sallied out, and did great execution on the enemy, who fled on all sides, and dispersed so rapidly that by nightfall not a man of them could be seen.

The strength of the Afghans was estimated at about thirty thousand, and their losses "at not less than three thousand killed and wounded." The British casualties were exceedingly