450 LORD AUCKLAND, GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF INDIA. [1838. on the last day of the year, received the ratification of the great seal of England. On the 10th of September, 1838, lord Auckland, the Governor-general of India, who had entered upon his office at the end of 1835, proclaimed in General Orders his intention to employ a force beyond the North-West frontier. On the 1st of October he published a declaration of the causes and objects of the war. The ostensible object was to replace Shah Soojah on the throne of Cabul, the troubles and revolutions of Afghanistan having placed the capital and a large part of the country under the sway of Dost Mahomed Khan. Shah Soojah, driven from his dominions, had become a pensioner of the East India Company, and resided in the British cantonment of Lodiana. Dost Mahomed had in May, 1836, addressed a letter to lord Auckland, which conveyed his desire to secure the friendship of the British government. He was desirous of obtaining the aid of the British against Persia, whose troops were besieging Herat, and to recover Peshawur from Runjeet Singh, the ruler of the Punjaub. The Governor-general in 1837 despatched Capt. Alexander Burnes as an envoy to Cabul. He was received with great courtesy. His instructions did not allow him to give any hopes of British assistance to Dost Mahomed. Soon after the arrival of Burnes a Russian envoy arrived at Cabul, who was liberal in his promises, but whose authority was afterwards disavowed by his government. In the posthumous narrative by sir Alexander Burnes of his journey to Cabul, he says that the tranquillity which had dawned on the east, and the invasion of Afghanistan by the Persians on the west, "had a prejudicial effect at Cabul, which was further heightened by the presence of an agent from Russia, who reached the place soon after my arrival. To the east, the fears of Dost Mahomed Khan were allayedto the west they were increased; and in this state of things his hopes were so worked upon, that the ultimate result was his estrangement from the 1839.] CAUSES OF THE AFGHAN WAR-THE BRITISH CROSS THE INDUS. 451 British government." Capt. Burnes carried back with him a belief that Russia was meditating an attack upon British India, having established her influence in Persia; that Dost Mahomed was treacherous; and that the true way to raise a barrier against the ambition of Russia was to place the dethroned Shah Soojah upon the throne of Cabul, as he had numerous friends in the country. The alarm of the possible danger of a Russian invasion through Persia and Afghanistan led to the declaration of war against Dost Mahomed in the autumn of 1838, and to the preparation for hostilities under a Governor-general whose declared policy, at the commencement of his rule, was to maintain the peace which had been scarcely interrupted since the conclusion of the Birman war. But it is not to the apprehensions alone of the envoy to Cabul, or the impressions produced by him upon the sensitiveness of the Governor-general, that we must wholly impute the resolve to put forth the British strength in a distant and dangerous expedition. There was an universal impression throughout India that some imminent danger was about to assail us on the north-west; that a powerful combination of hostile powers, of which Russia was the head, was about to pour down upon our territories, whose arrival would be the signal for a general rise amongst the neighbouring States and in our own provinces. This general feeling of alarm was confirmed by representations made to the Governor-general from all the intelligent men who were in the Government, or connected with the different districts in India. Unquestionably there was a panic, and under such circumstances the heaviest charge against lord Auckland would have been that he remained in supine indifference. On the 14th of February the Bengal division of the army under sir Willoughby Cotton crossed the Indus at Bukkur. The Indus is here divided into two channels, one of which is nearly five hundred yards in breadth. The passage of eight thousand men with a vast camp-train and sixteen thousand camels was effected without a single casualty. Sir John Cam Hobhouse, in moving the thanks of the House of Commons to the Indian army, in February, 1840, read a glowing description of this passage. "It was a gallant sight to see brigade after brigade, with its martial music and its glittering arms, marching over file by file, horse, foot, and artillery, into a region as yet untrodden by British soldiers." He quoted also from a periodical publication an eloquent allusion to the grand historical contrasts of this expedition. "For the first time since the days of Alexander the Great, a civilized army had penetrated the mighty barrier of deserts and mountains. which separates Persia from Hindustan; and the prodigy has been exhibited to an astonished world of a remote island in the European seas pushing forward its mighty arms into the heart of Asia, and carrying its victorious standards into the strongholds of Mohammedan faith and the cradle of the Mogul empire." § The Bengal army was preceded by a small body of troops. under the orders of Shah Soojah, and it was followed by the Bombay division under the command of sir John Keane. Into an almost unknown "Personal Narrative," p. 143. +Letter of General Cubbon from Bangalore, quoted by Lord John Russell in Debate, March 1, 1843-Hansard, vol. xlvii., col. 154. Lord John Russell-Hansard, vol. xlvii. col. 151. § Hansard, vol. li. col. 1330. 452 THE BOLAN PASS-SIEGE OF GHUZNEE. [1839. and untrodden country twenty-one thousand troops had entered through the Bolan Pass. Sir Willoughby Cotton, with the Bengal column, entered this Pass in the beginning of April. Beloochee rulers had rendered him all the aid in their power, but the Beloochee freebooters were murdering stragglers and cutting off baggage and cattle. The passage of this formidable Pass, nearly sixty miles in length, was accomplished in six days. For the first eleven and a half miles into the Pass the only road is the bed of the Bolan river. The mountains on every side are precipitous and sterile; not a blade of vegetation of any kind being found, save in the bed of the stream. There was no sustenance for the camels, unless it were carried for their support during six days, and thus along the whole route their putrefying carcasses added to the obstacles to the advance of the army.* At length the column emerged into the open country. Havelock, who now, after twenty-three years' service, had been promoted to the command of a company, has described how the eye swept with delight over a wide plain bounded with noble mountain ranges, how the carol of the lark mounting up in the fresh morning air broke charmingly on the English ear.t The Bombay army sustained considerable loss from freebooters in their passage through the Bolan Pass, but the two columns were enabled to unite at Candahar, and to proceed to the siege of Ghuznee, under the command of sir John Keane. On the 22nd of July the British forces were in camp before this famous city, built upon a rock, towering proudly over the adjacent plain. The intelligent officers of the army could not have viewed without deep interest this stronghold of Mohammedism, where the tomb of sultan "Mahmoud, the conqueror of Hindustan, was still preserved, and where Mohammedan priests still read the Koran over his grave. The sandal-wood gates of this tomb, which in 1025 had been carried off from the Hindoo temple of Somnauth in Guzerat, were to acquire a new celebrity at the close of this Afghan war by an ostentatious triumph, not quite so politic as that of the sultan Mahmoud. At Ghuznee, Mohammedism maintained its most fanatical aspect. On the day before the final attack, major Outram attempted with part of the Shah's contingent to force the enemy from the heights beyond the walls. He describes that over the crest of the loftiest peak floated the holy banner of green and white, surrounded by a multitude of fanatics, who believed they were safe under the sacred influence of the Moslem ensign. A shot having brought down the standard-bearer, and the banner being seized, the multitude fled panic-stricken at the proof of the fallacy of their belief. This was desultory warfare. But it had been determined that three hours after midnight, on the morning of the 23rd, the fortress and citadel should be stormed. Ghuznee was regarded by the Afghan nation as impregnable. It had a garrison of three thousand five hundred Afghan soldiers, with a commanding number of guns, and abundance of ammunition and other stores. The Cabul gate was blown open by a terrific explosion; the storming party entered the gate; a few moments of darkness and confusion, and then the foremost soldiers caught a glimpse of the morning sky, and pushing gallantly * Outram, "Rough Notes of the Campaign," pp. 71, 72. 1839.] CABUL ENTERED IN TRIUMPH-SHAH SOOJAH RESTORED. 453 on, were soon established in the fortress.* In two hours from the commencement of the attack Ghuznee was in the hands of the British forces. There were great doubts, almost universal doubts, at home as to the policy of this Afghan war. There could be no doubt as to the brilliancy of this exploit. The duke of Wellington gave his warmest testimony to the merits of the officer who had achieved this success. The duke went further. Carefully reserving his opinion as to the origin of the war, he declared, in assenting to the vote of thanks to the army of the Indus, that he had had frequent opportunities of noticing the arrangements made for the execution of great military enterprises, but that he had never known an occasion on which the duty of government had been performed on a larger scale, on which more adequate provisions had been made for all the contingencies which might have occurred, or in which more attention had been paid to the wishes of the officers, the comforts of the soldiers, and all those considerations which are likely to make a war successful.t On the 29th of July the British army quitted Ghuznee. It entered Cabul in triumph on the 7th of August. Shah Soojah, restored to his sovereignty, was once more seated in the Bala-Hissar, the ancient palace of his race. Dost Mahomed had fled beyond the Indian Caucasus. The country appeared not only subjected to the new government, but tranquil and satisfied. There was a notion at one time of withdrawing the greater part of the forces, but it was finally determined that the first division of Bengal infantry with the 13th Queen's regiment should remain in Cabul and Candahar, and that Ghuznee and Jellalabad should be occupied by native regiments. One division of the Bombay army, which was returning home, effected the capture of the strong fortress of Khelat, with a view to the deposition of the Khan, who had conducted himself hostilely and treacherously towards the British. To the forces remaining in Cabul there were a few months of ease and recreation. As the spring and summer advanced insurrections began to break out in the surrounding country. Dost Mahomed had again made his appearance, and had fought a gallant battle with the British cavalry, in which he obtained a partial victory. Despairing, however, of his power effectually to resist the British arms, he wrote to Cabul, and delivered himself up to the envoy, sir William Mac Naghten, claiming the protection of his government. He was sent to India, where a place of residence was assigned to him on the North-West frontier, with three lacs of rupees (about 30,0007.) as a revenue. But the danger of the occupation of Afghanistan was not yet overpast. The events of November and December, 1841, and of January, 1842, were of so fearful a nature as scarcely to be paralleled in some of their incidents by the disasters of the mutiny of 1857. In September and October, 1841, the direction of affairs at Cabul was almost wholly in the hands of sir William MacNaghten, the envoy. Sir Alexander Burnes was also there, but without any official appointment. The chief command of the army was committed to major-general Elphinstone, an old Peninsular officer, but whose energy had passed into a state of nervous debility, totally unfitting him for any sudden emergency. Shah Soojah was Kaye, vol. i. p. 447. 454 FALSE SECURITY AT CABUL-AFGHAN PLOTS. : [1841. complaining that he had no real authority, and that he did not understand his position. Burnes was equally dissatisfied that at Cabul he was without employment, consulted at times, but possessing no responsibility. An administrative change was at hand. MacNaghten was appointed governor of Bombay, and Burnes looked forward to the attainment of a sphere of duty suited to his abilities, as the successor of MacNaghten. The British at Cabui were in a condition of false security. The army was in cantonments, extensive, ill-defended, overawed on every side. Within these indefensible cantonments English ladies, amongst whom were lady MacNaghten and lady Sale, were domesticated in comfortable houses. Sir Robert Sale had left Cabul in October, expecting his wife to follow him in a few days. The climate was suited to the English; and our officers, true to their national character, had been cricket-playing, riding races, fishing, shooting, and, when winter came, astonishing the Afghans with skating on the lakes. After the catastrophe which we shall have to relate, an unfinished memorandum was found among the papers of sir William MacNaghten, in which he says, "I may be considered culpable for not having foreseen the coming storm. To this I can only reply that others, who had much better opportunities of watching the feelings of the people, had no suspicion of what was coming."* All looked with complacency upon the profound tranquillity around them, as that of an unclouded morning,-all "Regardless of the sweeping whirlwind's sway, That, hush'd in grim repose, expects his evening prey." On the night of the 1st of November there was a meeting of Afghan chiefs, who were banded together, however conflicting might be their interests, to make common cause against the Feringhees (foreigners). One of these, Abdoollah Khan, who had been active in his intrigues to stir up disaffection, had an especial quarrel with Burnes, who had called him a dog, and had said that he would recommend Shah Soojah to deprive the rebel of his ears. He proposed that at the contemplated rising on the 2nd of November the first overt act should be an attack on the house of Burnes. Lady Sale, in her journal of that day, says, "This morning early all was in commotion in Cabul; the shops were plundered, and the people were all fighting." Before daylight an Afghan who was friendly to Burnes came to report to him that a plot had been hatched during the night which had for its chief object his murder. The Vizier arrived with the same warning. Burnes was incredulous, and refused to seek safety either in the king's fortress-palace, the Bala Hissar, or in the British cantonments. A mob was before his house. Perfect master of the language of the people, he harangued them from a gallery. At his side stood his brother Charles, and lieutenant Broadfoot, who had arrived to perform the office of military secretary to Burnes when he should be the highest in place and power. The mob clamoured for the lives of the British officers, and Broadfoot was the first to fall by a shot from the infuriated multitude. The insurgents had now forced their way into Burnes's garden, upon the culture of which he prided himself, and they called to him Kaye, vol. ii. p. 3. |