The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-17 00:00:00

been sufficient to convi
duped.
" The usual civilities having passed, the envoy presented
Akber Khan with a valuable Arab horse, which had only that
morning been purchased for 3,009 rupees. The whole party
then sat down near some rising ground, which partially con-
cealed them from cantonments.
" Captain Lawrence having called attention to the num-
ber of inferior followers around them, with a view to their
being ordered to a distance, Mahomed Akber exclaimed,
' No ; they are all in the secret t' which words had scarcely
been uttered. when Sir William and his three companions
found themselves suddenly grasped firmly by the hands from
behind, whilst their swords and pistols were rudely snatched
away by the chiefs and their followers. The three officers
were immediately pulled forcibly along, and compelled to
mount on horseback, each behind a Giljye chief, escorted by
a number of armed retainers, who with difficulty repelled the
efforts of a crowd of fanatic Ghazees; who on seeing the
affray, had rushed to the spot, calling aloud for the blood
of the hated infidels, aiming at them desperate blows with
their long knives and other weapons, and only deterred from
firing by the fear of killing a chief. The unfortunate en-
voy was last seen struggling violently with Mahomed Akber,
' consternation and horror depicted on his countenance,'
" On their nearing Mahomed Khan's fort, renewed at-
tempts were made to assassinate the three captive officers by
the crowd there assembled. Captain Trevor, who was
seated behind Dost Mahomed Khan, unhappily fell to the
ground, and was instantly slain. Captains Lawrence and
Mackenzie reached the fort in safety; but the latter was
much bruised in various parts of his body, and both were
greatly exhausted from the excitement they had undergone.
" At the entrance of the fort, a furious cut was aimed at
Capt. Mackenzie's head by a ruffian named Mollah Momin
which was warded off by Mahomed Shah Khan, that chief
receiving the blow on his own shoulder. Being taken into a
small room, they found themselves still in continual jeopardy,
from repeated assaults of the Ghazees without, who were with
the greatest difficulty restrained from shooting them through
the window; where the hand of some recent European vie.
tim (afterwards ascertained to be that of the envoy himself)
was insultingly held up to their view. Throughout this try-
ing scene, they received repeated assurances of protection
from the Giljye chiefs; but Amenoollah Khan coming in
gave vent to a torrent of angry abuse, and even threatened
to blow them from a gun. It is deserving of notice, that
amidst the congratulations which on all sides met the ear
of Mahomed Shah Khan on the events of the day, the soli-
tary voice of an aged Mullah was raised in condemnation of
the deed, which he solemnly pronounced to be foul,' and
calculated to cast a lasting disgrace on the religion of Maho-
med.
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Cabul, notwithstanding the excitement that had prevailed
throughout the day, it resembled a city of the dead ; nor did
they meet a single soul.

By Akber Khan they were received courteously, and
were now infoimed for the first time by Capt. Skinner of the
murder of the envoy and Capt. Trevor. That Sir William
Macnaghten met his death at the hands of Mahomed Akber
himself there can be no reasonable doubt. The chief had
pledged himself to his coadjutors to seize the envoy that day,
and bring him into the city, when the chiefs hoped to have
been able to dictate their own terms, retaining, him as a
hostage for their fulfilment. Finding it impossible, from the
strenuous resistance Sir William offered, to carry him off
alive, and yet determined not to disappoint the public ex-
pectation altogetber,—influenced also by his tiger passions,
and the remembrance of his father's wrongs,—Mahomed
Akber tirex a pistol, the envoy's own gift a few hours be-
fore, and shot him through the body, which was immediately
hacked• to pieces by the ferocious Ghazees, by whom the
dismembered trunk was afterwards carried to the city, and
publicly exposed in the Char Chouk, or principal mart. The
head was taken to the house of Nuwab Zuman Khan, where
it was triumphantly exhibited to Capt. Coriolis.
" Such was the cruel fate of Sir William Macnaghten, the
accomplished scholar, the distinguished politician, and the
representative of Great Britain at the court of Shah Shooja-
00l Moolk."