CHAPTER II. REPLY TO COUNT BJÖRNSTJERNA'S INDIA, CONTINUED. To proceed with the Count's work. Enough has been said to show that his enumeration of physical obstacles are for the most part imaginary, and his topographical" facts," almost without an exception, either false or exaggerated. He further remarks, "the Panjab is a marshy country, intersected by five great rivers," and I reply, that there is not a natural marsh in the whole country so large as the palm of my hand. A portion of the great Indian desert penetrates into the Panjab, and terminates in the province of Gujerath, near the Himaleh mountains, occupying the country between the river Hydaspes and Hydraotes, (the Jelum and Ravee.) Beyond this, extending to the Indus, are the sterile, argillaceous, and intractable upland plains of Potewar; to the south are the desolate tracts of immense jungle, consisting of high grass, dwarf bair, tamarisk, and baubul, so that the only productive and highly cultivated districts lie east of the Hydraotes, towards the Sutledge, and these are never marshy or even saturated, except during the rainy season, when occasional heavy falls of water effect a temporary lodgement upon the flat surface of a plain many miles in length and breadth, from the river Bias (or Hyphasis) to the Sutledge (Sudless or Hysudrus). Between these two rivers the soil is a fat vegetable mould, and the level of water is about three feet below the surface. Wells of this depth are sufficient for the purposes of irrigation, but the Panjab is nowhere marshy.* As for the rivers of the Panjab, I have crossed them all on horseback in the fall months; and during winter the Indus may also be forded on horseback, near to and above the Attock ferry, without swimming the animal. The Count predetermines that Persia conjoined with Russia shall make no allies in a projected invasion of India. He alludes to the religious enmity existing between the Avghans and Persians: the former being orthodox Soonee Mahomedans, whilst the latter are the schismatic followers of Ali, known by the sectarian appellation of Sheah. I can inform the Count that the religious watchword of "Dum i char Yar" no longer calls together the bigoted Soonee to oppose the less infatuated Sheahs in their alleged desecration of orthodoxy; and that these disciples of "Shah i Merdan" were tolerated and caressed in Cabul under the strictly impartial government of Dost Mahomed. There is no doubt of the violent enmity mutually prevailing between these two denominations, but governments are ruled by expediency and not by religious bigotry or exasperated * Kanawan is the name of a fen made by the expansion of a stream forming a tributary amongst the head waters of the Bias. It skirts the Himaleh range, northeast of Lahore, on the frontier of Nadoun, a principal town of the Katouch principality, not within the geographical boundaries of the Panjab, although it has been subdued and added to the political compact of the Seiks. sectarianism, though passion influences a casting vote where policy does not oppose its voice. If the Avghans under Dost Mahomed saw that Russia and Persia united were stronger than England, they would have joined the former; if they suspected the allies of inability to withstand their enemies, they would have rendered their cause less hopeful by coalescing with their enemies. But now the English, having advanced into Avghanistaun and attempted the subjugation of their country, there is no longer a doubt but they would readily unite with the forces of Russia and Persia to regain their national independence; and the British, in case of an invasion of India by these powers, would be obliged to defend possession of Avghanistaun against a hostile population and a foreign enemy, and at the same moment to maintain their power against the fermenting millions in her Indian dominions, which position would be final and fatal. Page 227: "In these extensive sandy deserts which lie on the road to India, it is impossible for horses to draw the heavy artillery and its ammunition"-a gratuitous assertion, which any native of Avghanistaun, Beloochistaun, Scind, or almost any part of Asia,-except the great desert of Kobi, with which I am unacquainted, but upon which the Russian archives would probably enlighten him,-can tell the Count is not the fact. No native army moves without artillery. Dost Mahomed had sixty pieces of cannon, many of them heavy battering guns, drawn by oxen, and many pieces of horse artillery. Shah Shujah ul Moolk, in his military demonstration against Kaudhar in 1833, from Shaokarpore, had sixteen pieces of horse artillery collected between Loodianah and Scind; and the British army (1839), consisting of 20,000 fighting men and 60,000 camp followers, was accompanied by a regular train of artillery, consisting of heavy mortars, breaching ordnance, and light batteries, all of which were transported on their carriages by bullocks, by horses, or by manual labour. The whole country, from Meshud to Attock, where the open plains commence towards India, and from the river Oxus to the Indian ocean, has been traversed again and again by native armies, cavalry and infantry, caravans and camels, time out of mind, with untrammelled facility, as appears from history ancient and modern, -from the days of Xerxes, "who stirred up all against the realm of Grecia," to the frivolous ephemera which emanated from the superficial military book-makers who accompanied the late English expedition into Cabul. Page 238: "Coming in the Avghan mountain passes, with their hard and stony paths, the camel is useless." Accompanying the English army from Shaokarpore via Kandhar to Cabul, there were thirty-five thousand camels, according to the verbal report of the fiscal agent at Cabul; many of these animals, bred in the plains of Hindostan, died from privation, fatigue, and climate; but seasoned camels, prepared to sustain these disqualifying incidents, native to Khorassaun and Tatary, are readily procurable for an army advancing from Bulkh. The Bactrian camels are the hardiest of all, and the Bughtee or short-legged animal, bred from the double-hunched Bactrian male camel, and the single-humped dromedary, is the strongest of its species, and capable of unexampled endurance. By the construction of its foot, which is provided with * See the account by Herodotus of the muster-roll of Xerxes' army. a longer toe-nail than ordinary to the dromedary, it is enabled to travel amongst mountains with ease. I have purchased this breed in Bactria, and found them excellent carriage cattle for crossing the Indian Caucasus. I escorted a caravan into Bulkh, or rather a caravan was allowed to accompany my division, when proceeding in the campaign against Kundooz in 1838-39. It was made up of 1600 camels and 600 pack-horses. We crossed the Paropamisus, via Bameean, Rooey, and Derrah i Esoff, debouching upon Mozar. The camel is the ordinary beast of burden in Avghanistaun. Travelling merchants or Lohanees pass from Lucknow in the heart of India proper, to Bocharah, the great capital of Central Asia, with at least 10,000 camels in their annual professional and migratory visits between these two celebrated marts of Oriental commerce. The Count lays great stress on the physical and political obstacles to a Russian invasion of India, as they existed previous to the late conquest by England in Central Asia. All those difficulties refer to the topography of the country and government of the principalities lying between the frontiers of Persia and India. How much then does Russia now owe to England for removing all those safeguards to India, by advancing her frontier to Heraut, at once annihilating the neutral ground between her own empire and her antagonist, so that when a Russian army shall reach Bulkh, which is sufficiently accessible, they will forthwith come into conflict with the English at Cabul? Avghanistaun and Lahore, no longer allies, in which character the Count fancied a host of invincible friends, but with all the warlike and partially subdued communities |
