Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-31
THE KHYBER PASS.
Ex-biAYoR CARTER HARRISON AMONG
THE AFGHANS.

Caution of the Natives in Permitting the
view with the Chief Of . Tribe-The
Historic Gorge.
started out il this letter to tell you Of the
land OF the noguls and their glorious monu-
ments, and intended doing SO here; but the
''Dsk Bungalow" we are in is not comforta-
BILE for writing in at night. l shall, there
fore, leave them now, and write up that
portion Of my travels in Delhi on our way
back southwark. l shall end this by telling
you OF glorious ride have had into At
ghanfsan today. I have letter from Lord
Dufferin bespeaking for me the good Offices
of all officials throughout his empire. Armed
with this, upon my arrival here called upon
the deputy commander, and asked permit
to go into the Khyber pass, leading into the
land of the ameer as far as possible. The re-
suit was that this morning, accompanied by
one Of his native officials, we drove eleven
miles to the fort at the foot of the hills. Here
we found our liveryman had sent relay of
horses to carry US part of the way up the
pass, where We expected to find saddle
horses also sent from the city early in the
morning.
WITH an ESCORT.
Accompanied by an escort of eight
mounted cavalrymen, splendidly mounted
and carrying lances, we dashed toward and
into the foothills, On every high point for
mile or two couple of soldiers would step
from little stone hut and present arms as
we passed by at full speed. Sometimes these
sentries were 100 Or 200 fest above US. AS
we had come from the town we had seen
several regiments practicing field exercises.
This, together with these frequent sentry
posts, made US realize that we were in o
neighborhood where dread war might at any
hour break into wild whoops. But our es-
cort were splendid looking fellows and were
fully armed, and HAD two-barreled little
Derringer. We were able to cope with an
army in narrow gorge We passed cara
van of camels, mules, and COWS all packed
and accompanied by wild looking armed
men.
We had not gone two miles upward before
our carriage horses baked We got out and
walked. One of the soldiers dismounted and
offered me his horse, beautiful stallion, full
of mettle and horse sense. / mounted and
rode ahead with two soldiers, the others COM
ing slowly up with the boys till they should
reach the next relay. The pass is through
wild, desolate, and grand gorge. bold, rocky,
and bleak mountains lifting far above the
road, which is a fine but steep military one.
My two 'sikhs" were splendid looking fell
lows They seemed to appreciate my horse
manship-you know my great modesty never
makes me deny that l can ride-and talked
to each other and to me in good Pungahie.
pretended to understand enough to keep thea
in good humor, while on we dashed. Is
about an hour one of them said something to
the ''sahib" gentleman which understood
to be that must ride slowly He dashed
forward at full speed-we were now on
down grade. The two Of us rode on slowly.
We met men in couples, armed and wild
looking. was given to understand they were
friends, but could not help feeling sort of
exhilaration. A wilder gorge does not exist
anywhere. Several rocky points had small
Afghan round houses, with loop holes for
muskets or rifles Wilder looking fellows
than those we met would be- hard to End any
where,