The Sun.
London, England, 1842-04-08 00:00:00

-DESTRUCTION OF THE BRITISH
ARMY I CABOOL.
We have been favoured with the following interesting la. ter
from the only' uneaptured sursiivor of the Cabool army—De.
Brydon. It is addressed to his brother, and dated Jeifalahad,
January 20:--
" dear Tom,—Here I ant at this place, all safe, but not
all sound, having received three wounds on the head, left hand,
and knee. I have lost everything I had in the world ; but my
lire has been saved in a most woederful manner, and I am the
only European who has escaped from the Cabool army
(although we have heard of two having been taken by the
enemy, it is very doubtful if they will be spared). Two
natives only have reached this place, making, with myself, three
persons out of an army of 13,000.
" I got on very well till within about 50 miles of this, with
the exception of losing all my baggage, &c. I then lost the
horse on which I was riding. Having taken one of my ser;
vents, who was wounded, up behind me, we fell rather too f
in the rear, when he was pulled off from behind. and I fell
with him. I was instantly felled to the earth with the blow
of a large knife, which wounded me in the head. I, how-
ever, managed to avert the second blow, by receiving my
enemy's hand on the edge of my sword, by which his hand was
somewhat damaged, and he dropped his knife, and made off
as fast as he could, and I, following his good example,
managed to reach the main bogy, minus my horse, cap, and
shoe, which last I lost in the snow. I was then trudging along
holding fest by the tail of another officer's horse, when a native,
who was r iding close by, said that he could ride no further, and
told me to take his horse, which I did without delay. Ido not
know who the man was, as it was quite dark at the time, but
the saddle rust have belonged to an Affghan. I now got to
the front, yehere I found a number of officers, who determined
to push on, a•S the men would obey no orders. and were halting
every minute, We travelled on slowly ail night, fired at occa-
sionally from the sides of the hills, and found ourselves at day-
break about 31,) miles from this, our party consisting of only
seven officers, five European soldiers, and myself, the rest hav-
ing lost us i n the dark, and gone by some other road.
"At about. ten A.M. We were attacked and surrounded on
all sides by 'horsemen : three officers and the five Europeans
weir here lei lied. One of the Officers was Lieutenant Bird, of
the Madras army, who fell 'close by my side. I with the re-
maining four got clear of the horsemen, and pushed on ; three
of our party 'being well mounted, left the fourth and myself far
in the rear, when he, alter coming on some way, said his horse
was done 'up, and that he would hide until night, for which
,purpose he left me about four miles from this. -
He was taken
and killed.
" I proceeded slowly for a short time, when I saw a great
many people running towards me in all directions. I waited
smil they got pretty close, and then pushed my horse into a
gallop and ran the gauntlet for about two miles under a shower
of large stones, sticks, and a few shots, in which I had
my sword broken by a stone, my horse shot in the spine
close to the tail, and my body bruised all over by the stones.
I was now attacked by a horseman, who left a party of
about six, whom I saw leading away one of our officers'
horses who had gone on ahead ; these three were killed ;
aad having nothing to defend myself with, and my horse
being quite dune up, he wounded me oar. the knee and hand,
when seeing me stoop down he galloped a way as fast he could,
thinking, I suppose, that I was looking for a pistol. I nosy
proceeded unmolested, and arrived here about one o'clock,
quite done up, as was also my poor horse, who lost the use of
his hind legs next day, and died two days after without ever
getting up after his arrival. If you rect sive this, let them
know at home that I am alive, as I have not been able to write
since October last, and perhaps we shall not have the road open
when the next overland starts. Since arriving here I have
had three shirts, three pair of socks, a jacket, and a pair of
trousers given to me. A very fine stock', you will say; how-
ever, it must do until I can get another outfit. Write to me
and let me know the news from home.--Your affectionate
brother, WILLIA.M BRYDON.
" S. I arrived here about noon on the 13th. All fur-
ther particulars you will find in the papers, so I can write no
more at present, it being awkward holding soy paper whilst
writing."