Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-03-21
AraHASisTAS THE BATTLE GROUND.

HE possibility of wlr between Rus
 .is and England On Afghan soil seem. 7-5bable, though as was stated in these ,5iumns few days since, such a wal ,,nuot be precipitated at once, nor eau tle Russians throw in a great army al rIes,ure and sustain it there. But iu rev of the possibility of war, our read
 4-s may be interested in a short sketch d, the battle ground. Heroditus men, ,.5ns tue Afghans an early as the 1lth century, when he refered to them as a small tribe of people living in the same district they now occupy, but they seem q, have assimilated and absorbed other .-tes that surrounded them, and extend si tueir possessions from the Solimap uouutalDs to other natural barriers on t5s east and north. It was then and for uanv generations afterwards, under Persian rule, but during the internal
 ii.cJ7ds in that country in 1773, Ashmid Kahn took advantage of these discords sni successfully founded the Douanee dynasty, since winch time it has been repeatedly fought over by would be rulers and those who happened to be in 1r,il lS2c when it was divided
 ID between three brothers, of whom the oldest. Dost MOhamei, ruled at Cabul. h ISSS the Governor General of India declared war against Afghan on the c-ounls taat Dost Mohamed had un- .sEiully attacked British ally and be- ,rayei a hostile purpase toward India.
 The British forces advanced through
 Boln pass 10 Candahar aud after some hard-tought battles entered Cabul, when they supposed they had subdued
 the people. but they were greatly de-
 c-!vei. Dost Mohamed surrendered to
 .ha English, but his son raised an army under their very eyes, and Ehen the English least expected it slew Sir Alex ander Burns, Envoy McNough'en aad
 many other British officers, retook Cabul a1i forced the remnant of the British
 army to take up their line of march out O' the country, and from 16.O00 men but one man ,Dr. Brydon) escaped to tell the dismal story. The experience of Eng lad ouly few years ago did not vary 1u'h from that above recounted, but in ths eni England forced them to accept spr0tec;orate. and 1t is believed these Aghsns will fight Russia now, with as much vigor as they did the English in
 tines past
 h the northeast the Alpine region of h-1lu hush wild mountain is.hmus eEtby numerous rRyInes and lowering
 E2IatO perpetual ice and snow, the high
 ness lall af eastern Asia unite with those e, Western Asia and presents formidable obstru.tion to communica- t1a between the territory of the Oxus s3l that of the Indus. There are only tEo passes leading down from inc hIgh- .alls to the Indus, One IS down t--0lgh the deep canyon cut through t-s Saliman, spur of the Himalaya o5anfsins by the Cabul rIver not far rom khyber pass, while that in the Boian pass, in the south, forms a way of with Saide. If the En- glsh choose to do so they can occupy l these passes, beyond which it will be for the Russians to go. The Afghans are a hardy race of peo- Ile, and ike all others who inhabit high | regions have a great love for their country and will fight for it to l ile bitter end. The population of Af- ghanistan is about 9,0O0000. The | English bel eve that they have sufficient | hold upon the Afghans. as their alleged | rr0tectors, that when the Russians ente thelr country from the north, they will oe only too glad to have English sol cleis come their relief and remain with | them until the war is over.