CHAPTER XXVIII.
Brief Historical Sketch of Affghanistan – Expulsion of Shah Sujah – He attempts to recover his Throne, but is defeated by Dost Mahommed – British Mission to Cabul – The Cause of Shah Sujah embraced by the English – Great Military Preparations – Advance of the Expedition – Difficult March to Candahar – The Bolan Pass – Destruction of Camels and Horses – The British Troops take possession of Candahar – Coronation of Shah Sujah – The Army advances towards Cabul – Arrival at Ghuznee – Preparations for attacking that Fortress – Storming and Capture of Ghuznee – Singular Incidents of the Attack – Entrance of Shah Sujah into Cabul – Cold Reception of the new Monarch – Assassinations at Cabul – Part of the British Troops depart for India – Storming and Capture of Kelat.
There never was, perhaps, a period in history when the military virtues were put to a severer test, by every possible vicissitude of war, than the one we are now approaching; and there certainly never was one in which so many marches, skirmishes, sieges, pitched battles, retreats, and calamities of all sorts, were crammed, as it were, into so narrow a space of time. It would almost seem as if Destiny in all former wars had been only steeling the hearts and training the physical powers of our soldiers to meet the gigantic contests which now awaited them; and the glorious manner in which these trials were met and vanquished will shed a radiance through every future age on the annals of the Anglo-Indian Army.
With the political transactions which led to the war in Affghanistan it is not our province to deal, even were we competent to the task; nor is it necessary to give more than a very brief sketch of the history of that country to elucidate the origin of those events in which we were unhappily mixed up with its fortunes.
After a long series of those revolutions so common to empires in the East, Ahmeed Abdalla, an officer of an
