On the 25th we marched to Jaldak, seventeen miles, and the same distance the next day to Tirandaz, where I received a letter from Lieutenant-General Primrose, informing me that Ayub Khan had raised the siege on the 23rd, and was entrenching himself at Mazra, beyond the Baba Wali Kotal, in the valley of the Arghandab.

I awoke on the morning of the 27th feeling very unwell, and soon found I was in for an attack of fever.  The heat during the day was becoming more and more overpowering as we proceeded south, and I had lately been feeling somewhat knocked up by it and by exposure to the sun.  I had now to give in for the time being, and was compelled to perform the march in a doolie, a most ignominious mode of conveyance for a General on service; but there was no help for it, for I could not sit a horse.

That day the 3rd Bengal and 3rd Punjab Cavalry marched thirty-four miles to Robat, in order to establish direct heliographic communication with Kandahar.  The main body halted about half-way, when I again reported progress as follows: 

    SHAHR-I-SAFA,
    ’27th August, 1880.

’My force arrived here to-day.  I received a letter yesterday, dated 25th, from Colonel St. John.  He writes:  “The rumours of the approach of your force have been sufficient to relieve the city from investment.  On Monday night the villages on the east and south were abandoned by their mixed garrisons of ghazis and regulars.  Yesterday morning Ayub struck his camp, and marched to a position on the Arghandab, between Baba Wali and Sheikh Chela, due north of the city, and separated from it by a range of rocky hills.  He has about 4,000 Infantry regulars, six 12-pounders and two 9-pounders rifled, four 6-pounder smooth-bore batteries, and one 4-pounder battery, 2,000 sowars, and perhaps twice that number of ghazis, of whom a third have firearms.  The Kizilbashes and Kohistanis in his army, about 1,200 Infantry and 300 Cavalry, offered to desert and join us directly we made a show of attack.  They are at last aware of Abdur Rahman’s succession, but I think Ayub will remain unmolested until the arrival of the Kabul force, provided he waits, which is unlikely.  He will, I expect, strike away north into Khakrez, on which line a vigorous pursuit will give us his guns.  Maclaine, Royal Horse Artillery, is still a prisoner; I am making every effort to obtain his release, but I am not very hopeful of success.  This morning, the 25th, I went to the field of the unlucky sortie of the 16th, and found the bodies of the poor fellows who fell there, some forty in number; they will be buried this afternoon.  All the wounded are doing well.  No signs or tidings of Phayre.”  General Gough, with two regiments of Cavalry, is at Robat; they are in heliographic communication with Kandahar.  General Primrose heliographs that Ayub Khan has entrenched his camp at Baba Wali.  The force marches for Robat to-morrow, seventeen miles distant from Kandahar.’