The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-11-02

lnonUn OF November, pure and braclng,
yet the post has become the grave of
nearly all the soldiers that have been
quartered there" Thus driven from
Ali Musiid, Mahommed Akhbar yet con-
tlnued at the head of a considerable
force to present a bold front to the in
yaders. As the disposition of his
forces was skillful, it is probable that
he would have made an energetic re-
sistance; but his intentions were frus-
trated by the capture of Ghuzni, which
now rendered the defense of the capt.
tai the most pressing object. Accord
ingly the force under Wade, finding it's
enemy diminished in its front, pene-
trated the last passes of the Khyber,
and after establishing chain of posts
along the mountain route, and on the
right margin of the river, advanced
without further obstacle to the neigh
borbood of Cabul. In brief, the pass
age of the dreaded Khyber had proved
to Wade's army an enterprise of little
difficulty; but the circumstances were
obviously favorable. The aspect of af-
fairs soon afterward, when the victofi-
GUS Sir John Keane and the column
under his command were returning to
India by this route, gave ominOus token
of future troubles. The intelligence
that the predatory Khyberees had at
tackled an earthwork near the Ali Mus
jid fort, and mercilessly put to the
sword 400 of its Nuieeb defenders, part
OF the British forces, was significant,
and the occasional appearance of bands
of these robbers, described as men of
dwarfish stature, and remarkable for a
peculiarly wild air and mean and
squalid clothing, creeping along eau
tiously out of point-blank range of
musketry on the ridge of the mount
aims, rendered it advisable for the col
umn to move in close and guarded ar
ray. Once more, however, the terrible
Khyber was passed by a British army
without any serious impeachment, though
it is to be observed that the conditions
OF mountain warfare have greatly
changed since 1889. 1t would at least
be prudent to assume that the khyber
pass in the hands of defenders well
armed would prove in these days a less
easy route for an invader of Afghanis-
tan.
The disasters which subsequently, be-
fell the British forces in Cabul, isolated
and surrounded by hostile tribes-the
assassination of Sir Alexander Burnes
and Sir William Macnaghten, the con-
vention under which Major Pottinger
and CaptS. Laurence and Mackenzie
were delivered up as hostages to Akh-
bar Kahn, and the massacres which
ensued-are matters of history. Tween
ty-siX thousand men, women, and chill
dren fell in the rocky defles and mount
ain gorges of Afghanistan, partly I'M
der the incessant harrassment and
murderous attacks of the Afghan
troops and the wild hill tribes, but
more from hunger and the deep SHOWS
and wintry blasts of that inhospitable
region, five thousand feet above the
level of the sea. OF all that host only
one, DR.. Brydon, made his way alive
to Jellalabad, bringing the news that
the army of Cabul had ceased to exist.
Seven or eight of the survivors were
taken prisoners; the rest were killed.
The scene of those terrible disasters,
however, was not the Khyber pass
which the retreating multitude, in fact
never reacbed-but the Koord- Cabul
and some minor passes. The attack,
indeed, began almost as soon as the
retreat, though it was continued only
in an irregular fashion; for, even fam
ished and without hope, the British
forces still fought desperately, and
kept their foe, as a rule, at a respecta-
BILE distance. The Koord- Cabul pass is
described as five miles long, shut in on
either hand by a line of lofty hills, with
a torrent dashing down the centre
which even the intense frost was power
less to arrest. The destruction of life
at this stage was great. Lady Sale re-
ceived ball in her arm, and Lieut..
Sturt, her sOn-in-law, was mortally
wounded. This was on the Sth of Jan
uary; on the 9th the married officers,
with their wives and children, We're
given up to the Akhbar Khan, in the
hope of saving them by future ransom.
On the next day the retreat was con-
tinued through defile ominouslv
named the Dark pass, only fifty yards
long, and the Tezoon pass, three miles
long. On the 18th Gen. Elphinstone,
the commander-in-chief, fell into the
hands of the enemy. On the following
day they entered the terrible pass Of
Jugdulluk, two miles long, and very
narrow and precipitous, and found the
exit closed by strong barriers of prick
ly holly-oak stretched across the defile.
Here, with twenty muskets for their
only weapon, the miserable remnant of
our forces made their final stand, and
60 the rest was silence. ''-London DaiIv