|28th Punjab Infantry | 8 | | 636 | |7th Company Bengal Sappers | 3 | | 93 | | and Miners ---------------------------| | | 192 | 2,558 |3,867 | -------------------------------------------------------- ]

[Footnote 5:  Known as the sang-i-nawishta (inscribed stone).]

[Footnote 6:  Shortly after I was settled at Kabul, the following letter, written by Nek Mahomed on the evening of the day he had been with the Amir, to some person whom he wished to acquaint with the state of affairs, was brought to me: 

’MY KIND FRIEND,—­The truth is that to-day, at sunrise, I went to the camp, the Amir having summoned me.  When I arrived, Mulla Shah Mahomed [the Wazir] first said to me, “Go back and tell the people to raise a holy war.”  I did not feel certain about what he said [or was not satisfied with this], [but] the Amir afterwards told me to go back that very hour and rouse the people to a ghaza.  I got back to Kabul about 7 o’clock, and am collecting the people.  Salaam.’

The letter was not addressed, but it was sealed with Nek Mahomed’s seal, and there was no reason to doubt its authenticity.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER LI. 1879

The Afghan position—­The fight at Charasia —­Highlanders, Gurkhas, and Punjabis—­Defeat of the Afghans —­Kabul in sight—­Deh-i-Mazang gorge—­The enemy give us the slip

The Cavalry having reported that the road through the sang-i-nawishta gorge was impassable, I started off a party[1] before it was fully light on the 6th, to work at it and make it practicable for guns.  I was preparing to follow with an escort of Cavalry to examine the pass and the ground beyond, when the growing daylight discovered large numbers of Afghan troops in regular formation crowning the hills that I ought to have been in a position to occupy the preceding evening.  No hurry, no confusion was apparent in their movements; positions were taken up and guns placed with such coolness and deliberation that it was evident regularly trained troops were employed.  Very soon I received reports of our Cavalry patrols having been fired upon, and of their having been obliged to retire.

Immediate action was imperatively necessary; the Afghans had to be dislodged from their strong position at any cost, or we should have been surrounded by overwhelming numbers.  Their occupation of the heights was, I felt, a warning that must not be disregarded, and a menace that could not be brooked.

Behind this range of hills lay the densely-crowded city of Kabul, with the scarcely less crowded suburbs of Chardeh, Deh-i-Afghan, and numberless villages thickly studded over the Kabul valley, all of which were contributing their quota of warriors to assist the Regular troops in disputing the advance of the British.  It did not require much experience of Asiatics to understand that, if the enemy were allowed to remain undisturbed for a single night in the position they had taken up, their numbers would increase to an extraordinary extent.