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5. ENCAMPMENT OF THE CANDAHAR ARMY AT CAUBUL.
THE encampment of the Candahar army, under its brave and determined leader, Major-General Sir William Nott, G. C. B., added considerably to the natural beauties of the extensive landscape, viewed from the Seeah Sung range. Beneath lay the vast plain of Chummun e Shauh (King’s meadow – now occupied by Nott’s army) , which separates Caubul from the Boodkauk hills, (Boodkauk, Idol earth, where Sultaun Mahmood is said to have buried the giant Idol Somnauth). The whole expanse of the city of Caubul reposes at the foot of its two picturesque and fortified mountains of Khojah Suffur (saint of victory), and Asha Mahi (mother Eve), behind which rise the towering heights of Pugmaun. After a march of two hundred and ten miles through the most desolate and terrific mountain passes in the world, the view which I have attempted to portray bursts suddenly on the delighted eyes of the fastness-wearied soldier. The Balla Hissaur, or upper fortress, crowned by its embattled hills, extends in the sketch to a high building looming darkly on the right of the high road, called Koollah e Firinghee (the European’s hat). Then commences the city itself, comprising the beautiful bazārs, the tomb of Timoor Shauh, the musjeeds, the residences of the Afghaun nobles and Kuzzilbaush chiefs; while farther east stretch away, for miles, vistas and terraces of Caubul’s fairest flower-gardens, orchards, and vineyards. Interspersed with these are villages, castles, country-seats, and watch-towers, washed by the clearest rivulets, edged with long lines of the willow, the poplar, and the mulberry. A mark in the high road, which runs through the centre of the sketch, at the point of the encampment nearest the city, indicates the spot where the unfortunate Shauh Shujau was assassinated, when on his way to Seeah Sung. The particulars of his murder are as follows: –
The King, after the annihilation of our army, is said to have written to Major Macgregor at Jellulabad, apprising him of his royal intention to leave the Balla Hissaur with what force he could muster, and joining the army there, to return with it, and chastise his rebellious subjects. The letter was unfortunately intercepted by Mahommed Zemaun Khaun, who was not slow in acting on the information thus surreptitiously obtained. For he, in common with the rest of the Baurukzye Sirdars, already felt himself greatly aggrieved by the Shauh, who, instead of selecting one of their family to be general of the army encamped at Seeah Sung, had, on his own authority, made choice of the son of Ameenoollah Khaun, a Ghiljye. For this slight they resolved to take revenge. Though the Baurukzyes, during a private conference with the Shauh, had bound themselves by the most sacred oaths on the Koraun, to answer for his safety on his quitting the Balla Hissaur for the alleged purpose of reviewing his troops, nevertheless, on the night previous to his departure, a hundred Jezzailchees were placed by them in ambuscade near Shauh Shakeed, on the high road were the Shauh must pass. Early in the morning, the King, clothed in his royal robes, and seated in his chair of state, left the Balla Hissaur, with a train of fifty followers, principally Hindoostaunees. On approaching the ambush (to the left of the indication, in the sketch, where the event took place) the conspirators fired a volley, and killed several of the palkee bearers, who immediately let the “ Jaumpaun” fall. The Shauh jumped out, and drew his sword, but was struck in the brain by a bullet, and otherwise severely wounded. Shujau-ood-Dowlah, the head conspirator, son of Zemaun Khaun, Baurukzye, seeing his Majesty fall, rushed at him on horseback, and cut him to pieces. They tore off his jeweled crown, and plundered the corpse of shawls, sword, dagger, and every article of value. They then threw the body into a ditch, and would have exposed the head in the Char Chutta, or bazār of four covered arcades, but for the Ghiljyes and Kuzzilbaushes, who upbraided the Baurukzyes with their flagrant violation of their oaths, and the heinous crime committed on the sacred person of the monarch. By them the corpse was carried away, and delivered over to the Moollahs of the royal mosque, within the walls of the citadel. There it was embalmed and lay in state, robed in kingly apparel. When I visited the “Musjeed, ” I just caught sight of it, but was forbidden by the priests to enter the chamber itself. Futti Jung, Shauhzauda, escaped from Seeah Sung on the day of his father’s murder, though pursued by Shujau-ood-Dowlah, and was made King by the Ghiljye and Kuzzilbaush faction.
To the back of the hill Khojah Suffur, surmounting the Balla Hissaur, is perched the tomb of Sultaun Baber. To the right of the city may be seen the domed roof of the tomb of Timoor Shauh. Close to it was the residence of that singularly-gifted and most amiable man, Sir Alexander Burnes, whose prepossessing manners and excellent qualities endeared him to every one who had the honour of his intimacy and friendship. My brother and myself, while revering his memory, must, with his friends at large, always lament his cruel and untimely death, from which, doubtless, he might have been saved, had not too nice a feeling of honour prompted him to stay at his post long after he had been warned of the imminent danger that threatened him. On the morning of the 2nd November, 1841, Sir Alexander’s house was surrounded by Ameenoollah Khaun’s people, on which the King sent his Prime Minister to entreat him to fly, but in vain. A second time he dispatched him with a regiment to his aid; but it retired, for, on seeing his house in flames, it was conjectured that he had fled to cantonments. But it was not so. A Cashmeeree having offered to escort him safely to the Kuzzilbaushes if his guard would cease firing, Sir Alexander put on an Afghaun dress, and was going out of the “ Kirkee, ” or door, of his garden with his brother, when the traitor cried out, “ Een jau Sekundur Burnus hust” (Here is Alexander Burnes). On this brother was instantly cut down before his eyes, and himself hacked to pieces, by the long knives of the Ghiljye mob. Lieutenant Broadfoot had been slaughtered before this, the guard of fourteen Sepahis and the servants of the house sharing afterwards the same fate. Fuel was supplied from a bath opposite, and the house fired, out of revenge, by a “Kotwaul,” Or constable, by name Haidur, whom poor Burnes had turned out of his post for misconduct.
On my return to Caubul in September, 1842, with General Nott’s army from Candahar, I visited its blackened ruins, and the “ Hummaum, ” both of which I had known so short a time before under such different and happy circumstances. To the east of the picture, beyond the rocky eminence intervening between the city and the string of camels, lay the ill-fated cantonments. For an entrenched camp in the heart of an unconquered and warlike country, no position round Caubul could have been so ill calculated. From the city, in which remained our principal magazines of ammunition, treasure, and commissariat stores, it was a mile distant, with a river also intervening, and was itself overlooked by hills and fortresses. The Balla Hissaur too (as was experienced in the sequel), though occupied by us and commanding the town, was so far from the cantonments as to be a curse rather than a relief. So great indeed was the interval, as to render communication difficult, and mutual support impossible. While so dangerous a site was fixed upon, that which of all others seemed peculiarly adapted for so important a purpose was most unaccountably lost sight of. It is the plain occupied in the drawing by Nott. Had common prudence and foresight guided those whose duty it was to provide for the safety of the army, this, and not the ground actually selected a mile north of the city, would have been chosen as the only position suitable for the entrenched encampment. Flanked on its right by the Caubul river and Koord Caubul passes, the Balla Hissaur and the city on its left, and commanding the high road to Jellulabad and Peshawur, with the extensive and level plain of Chummun e Shauh around, it would have been so strong a position, as in all probability to have prevented that long series of unparalleled disasters, reverses, crimes, and errors, which ended in our total annihilation.
[Keywords]
Asha Mahi/ sardar/ jazayer/ jazayel/ janpan/ Char Chatta Bazar/ kerkey/ kotowal /Qandahar/ Siyah Sang/ Chaman-e Shah/ Kabul/ Butkhak/ Khwaje Zafar/ Pagman/ Bala Hisar/ Kolah-e Farangi/ Qizilbash/ Timur Shah/ Majid/ Shah Shuja‘ al-Dawla/ Jalalabad/ Muhammad Zaman Khan/ Barakzay/ Sardar/ Amin ullah Khan/ Ghilzay/ Fath Jang/ Sultan Babur/ Hammam/ Chaman-e Shah/ Khord Kabul
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