Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1885-05-15
AFGHANISTAN.
Memories Of Disaster to the English
Arms In Central Asia.

| AE6HANISIAN.
Memories Of Disaster TO the English
Arms In Central Asia.
England has many military memor
les of Afghanistan, some of them as
disastrous as am in the records of her
Indian empire Her first campaign,
directed to the destruction of the pow
er of its then ruler, Dost Mohammed,
took place in 1888, resulting in the
prompt occupation of Cabul, although,
writes correspondent to The Brook
lyn Eagle, throughout the rest of the
country insurrection followed insur-
rectioa, and the British in vaders were
only masters of the ground dominat-
ed by their guns and patrolled by the
warlike Ghilzais chiefs whom they
dislodged. The British envoy of that
eriod was Sir w. McNaughten, and
the enormous expenses Of the cam
paign, exceeding 91, 500, 900 per an
mum, all drawn from the already
overburdened Indian exchequer, in
duced or rather forced him to cut
down these subsidies to about one>
fourth their original amount. These
valiant emirs, commanding the
strongest mountain passes in the
world, the gateways between Cabul
and Peshawur, were summoned to
council at the former place, and in
formed of the curtailment of their
allowances. They made their salaam
to the envoy inapparent resignation,
returned to the mountains, plundered
a caravan, blockaded the passes. and
locked up the English troops in their
intrenchnents. On Nov. 2 the mob
attacked the house of the resident of
the East India company, Sir Alex~
der Burns, and cut him to pieces.
Maj Gen. Ephinstone, an imbeclle
and gouty old general, was in COM
mand of the cantonments, and owing
to his incapacity what was at first a
simple emeute ripened swiftly into a
revolt, and within three days the can
tonment with its garrison of five
thousand men was in a state of siege,
which continued for forty days. At
the expiration of that time, on Dec.
%, Sir w. McNaughten, the envoy,
was inveigled iuto conference be-
yond the limits of the British lines.
and was there treacherously slain
by the hand of Akbar Khan,
successor of the deposed ruler,
Dost Mohammde. The garrison
was now reduced to a state
OF starvation, aad under the dIctatiop
of the Afghan chiefs was obliged to
commence retire at through the great
mountain defiles in the depths of
winter. They marched forth number
ing 5000 men at arms, with IL 600
camp -followers-men and women-of
whom but a single individual, DR..
Brydon, succeeded in reaching the
refuge of the British lines at Jellala-
bad. In their retreat, without food
or shelter, Eenumbed with cold and
staggering through the heavy drifts of
the mountain passes, they were
slaughtered without mercy by the in
furiated highlanders at every turH.
No such shock has ever been given to
the military power of England since
her occupation of IEdia, and it awak
ened an instant emotion OF terror and
rage throughout the entire peninsula,
which was felt with equal bitterness
by the entire British people as soon as
the disastrous news could be convey
ed to them. Lord Auckland wss then
at the head of the Indian government,
but he was quickly succeeded by Lord
Elienborough, son of the illustrIous
lord chancellor, and on his arrival he
took up with energy the duty of re-
storing British prestige among the
savage mountaineers, and inhicting
upon them punishment correspond
ing in severity with that which they
had inflicted upon their invaders.
Gen. Sale was at Jellalabad with a
mixed force of English and Sepoys
numbering about 5000 men, Gen.
Knott at Candahar, and Gen. Pollock
at the Khyber pass, commanding all
told force of between 25, 600 and 30,-
600 efficient troops. On Sept. 18th of
the saEse year in which the fated gar
rison had left its cantonments upon a
retreat as appalling and tragical as
thai of Napoleon's army from the
blackened ruins of Moscow, the Brit
ish colors were again lifted above the
walls of the Bala Hissar, or central
fortifcation of Cabul. The narrative
of the liberation of the captives, one
of the most romantic episodes in the
history of British Indi4, is too we'll
known to need recital here. They
speedily rejoined their eountrymen at
Cabul and witnessed there the act of
retribution which the coneuerers des
termined to inf1ict upon the city in the
destruction of the magnificent bazaar,
the noblest structure of its kind in
central Asia, and in which the mutt
lated remains of the murdered envoy
had been exposed for days to the in
dignities and insults of the populace.
A part af the city was likewise pillag
ed, and on Oct. 18th the armies re-
turned in triumph to India, having
successfully re established from the
Hlndoe Koosh to the Parapamisan
mountains, and from the terrace gar.
| dens of Herat to the sand wastes of
Seistan, the terror of the British name
and the prestige OF its arms.
The fate of Sir Alexander Burns
and Sir w. McNaughten had nearly
befallen also May. Oatram, the Bay
ard of the east, at the hands of an in.
surrectionary band of Belooches, at
Khyrpan, in the following year, lead
ing among other important events to
1 ~ tIO Vi SudFiCS
Napier, then on the threshold of his
Indian achievements, and to the an
nexation to the territory of the COM
pany of the province of Scinde, an
rounced in a dispatch from Sir
Charles, which has the unique dis
tinction of being briefer than Caesars
-"Peccavi, l have Scinde."
For many ages these southern
mountain passes of Afghanistan had
been the gateway OF Indian invasion.
Alexander poured his Greek phalanxes
through the Dhy ber pass, and crossed
the Indus at Atteck, carrying his
| spears aud banners to the banks of the
Hydaspes. Sultan Mahmond, of
Gnuzni, Zinghis, and Nadir Shah had
led their invading hosts through the
same tremendous gorges, and launch
| II lafa