tically welcomed into Pollock's camp. One of the prisoners, John Conolly, had died of fever some time before, and another, Captain Bygrave, was still in Akbar's hands. But he too was allowed, a few days later, to rejoin his anxious friends[1].
The recovery of the captives was hailed by our countrymen both in India and at home as the crowning achievement of Pollock's army. Far different had been the lot of two other captives in a country less accessible to our influence. Of Colonel Stoddart's bootless mission to Bokhára some mention has been made already. His fellow-prisoner, Arthur Conolly, who had travelled much in Central Asia, was despatched by his uncle, Sir W. Macnaghten, in 1840 on a special mission to the ruler of Khokán, the Firghána of Bábar's day, one of those 'oasis Khanates' which dot the expanse of rolling plains watered by the Oxus and the Jaxartes. From Khokán the eager Irishman went on to Bokhára, in the vain hope of rescuing Stoddart from the confinement to which he had been subjected by the merciless tyrant then ruling in the central seat of Timúr's empire. Conolly's arrival from a hostile Khanate served only to inflame the Amír's ill feeling towards the infidel invaders of Afghánistán. His letter to the Queen of England remained unanswered, and Lord's aggressive movements towards the Oxus had inspired him with a lively fear for his own safety. Lord Auckland would not go to war for the release of an agent who refused
- ↑ Afghan Papers; Kaye.
