charge. On the 2nd of July a large body of Ghiljies, amounting to six thousand, was defeated by Captain Woodburn, commanding a field detachment on the Helmund. Success followed the British arms in various engagements of smaller or greater importance with the same enemy. In the beginning of August a body of Ghiljies was routed by some regular and irregular cavalry, commanded respectively by Lieutenant Bazett and Captain Walker; and later in the same month Captain John Griffin, commanding a field detachment in Zemindawur, attacked and dispersed a body of about five thousand, near Khishwura. By these energetic measures all opposition seemed at length to be completely put down; and at the close of September, 1841, the country generally exhibited greater appearance of tranquillity than it had manifested at any former time since the entry of Shah Sujah under the auspices of his British allies.
But the calm was a deceitful one, and the first indication of the coming storm was given at the beginning of the month of October, when three Ghiljie chiefs of note quitted Cabul, after plundering a rich caravan, and took up a strong position in the defile of Khoord Cabul, only ten miles from the capital; while at the same time intelligence was received that Akbar Khan, the ablest and fiercest of Dost Mahommed's sons, was collecting troops in various parts of the country, and fanatical Moollahs were proclaiming a religious war against the British. The hostility of the Ghiljie chiefs is mainly attributed to the following circumstance: – On the restoration of Shah Sujah to the throne, an agreement was entered into with them that they should receive an annual allowance from the Cabul treasury, on condition of keeping the Khoord Cabul Pass open, and offering no molestation to our troops on their passage between Cabul and Jellalabad. Though little dependence might perhaps be placed on the faith of the Ghiljies, yet this bargain was first broken by us, or our ally, Shah Sujah; and to this circumstance
