The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-28
HOW DARGAI WAS WON
THE FIGHTING QUALITIES OF HER
 MAJESTY'S INDIAN FORCES.

Scenes of the Engagement Described by a British OHicer-Cases of Mule Sui" cide-The Gordons' Part In the Battle.
 While we sat below in reserve a cry came down of More ammunition TOT the Dorsets." The message was flashed down accordingly, and soon three ann munition mules appeared at the 1oot of the steep climb about half mile below us, where the track sklrted the side of a very precipitous hill. The leading mule came to a very bad bit of path, did not like the look of it, jlbbed, backed, got his hind legs over the edge, made frantic efforts to recover his footing, was dragged down by, the weight of the ammunition boxes, and rolled over and over down out of sight. The second mule promptly followed his example, deliberately and without any fuss, nearly dragged driver down with him. Transport officers and others familiar with, the ways of the mule will tell you that instances are not uncommon when mules, weary of carrying heavy loads over frightful tracks, grow sick of life and purposely commit suicide over the nearest preci- Dice. This looked remarkably like an Instance of it. The third beast (which by the way was not mule, but a long Jagged weed of a ponY let itself be coaxed along a little further then took fright, reared up close to the edge, fell backward and went down head over heels after the mules, with the last of the Dorsets' reserve ammunition Incredible as it may appear, both the mules were got up subsequently, little the worse for their fall, nor was any of the ammunition on this occasion left as present for the enemy.
 Shortly after this A Company of the Derbyes, under Captain Menzies, and c, under Major Wylly, were ordered to relieve the Dorsets in the firing line, covering the advance or attempted advance through the gap. They Nave our range all right" said the Dorset officer whom Captain Menzies ralieved, as he showed him bullet hoe through his helmet. Any man exposing himself for one moment there was immediately fired at, while the .Alfridis above had made so excel lent a use of cover that not a man among them was visible, the smoke of their rifles offering the only guide for the direction of our fire. Next E, D and E companies were ordered up to the gap B had marched out Of camp in the rear of the battalion, and E inn 1nediately preceded them. This order had been maintained throughout, so that D went up first, followed at inter vals by E and B.
 As these companies scrambled up to reach the point where the slope les sened fifty yards or so beneath the .au. they came within view, for the first time at close quarters, of the enenay's position and of the state of thines at the gap. Right opposite, only three hundred and fifty yards away rose line of almost sheer cliff four hundred feet above us, lined for length of some four hundred yards with an invisible enemy whose rifles and iezaile (mostly rifies) were all lev elled at the gap. Away to our right out of sight from this spot, the cll1f took a sharp turn backward and be- came less precipitous, and 1t was round this turn that the track eventu- ally followed led up to the top The gap itself formed by the watercourse narrowing to funnel end at the top, was bounded on the left by large nerpendicular piece of rock, and on the right by a jagged stony crest With an Impossible descent on the further side But the most hopeless part of the whole thing was the frightful block in +he gap. There must have been some three hundred or four hundred men damned together there, several wound- ed among them. Right in the mouth of the gap, and plastered against the rock on the left squatted number of Gurkhas. officerless, dogged and sullen, thirstfng to revenge the slaughter of their comrades
 The heroism of Colonel Travers' s radiant regiment, who bore the brunt ,,f the first assault and suffered more heavily than any other regiment en- gagged, hadsnot been so generally recog- nized as it deserved. Immediately be- hind them, completing the block, was a, mass of Dorsets. So densely packed weresall these men, and so encountered with wounded, thai, until line through them was cleared Gas was done for the Gordons), it was only pos sibIe for any fresh troops to elbow a way through slowly one by one, and the continuous stream necessary to carry the place with a rush (the only chance of success) was then a physical impossibility. Nevertheless Captain Smith. who commanded D Company the first of ours to come up forced his way through the mass, and, followed Inv his subaltern Pennell and three or four more men of the company who managed to struggle through at short intervals, made a dash across the gap into the open under murderous hail of bullets Before he had gone more than few yards he fell, shot through the head, and the men behind him were moved down, Private Dunr heinz killed on the spot and Private Pomberth mortally wounded. Pennell not knowing his captain was dead won a Victoria Cross by making gal sant efforts to carry him back under rover. He got him some way with diff fculty. and, seeing some men lying or fhe ground, called them to assist. Nc answer came at first, until man oi the Dorsets lifted his head and an swered. "We are all wounded, sir, ex cent those that are dead" Then see inc that it was hopeless, he placed
 cs,,,;+I,,c helmet over his face the