Meanwhile my wound is going on favourably, though at first amputation was suggested, but, thanks to a good doctor and a capital soldier-nurse, I am in a fair way to be in the saddle, they tell me, in a fortnight or three weeks. I may say, in conclusion, that neither General Haines nor General Primrose had any share in General Burrows' ill-starred expedition. It was planned and devised at Simla, and hinc illæ lachrymæ. Playing chess by telegraph may succeed, but making war and planning a campaign on the Helmund from the cool shades of breezy Simla is an experiment which will not, I hope, be repeated.

STATE OF THE KANDAHAR GARRISON AFTER MAIWAND.

Kandahar, Aug. 7.

IN my despatch to you of the 30th ult. I had barely time to tell you some of the horrors we witnessed and endured during the night after the battle of the 27th. On comparing notes with several of my comrades who survived the slaughter-for I can call it nothing else-I find that what I witnessed was but a part of the terrors of the pursuit. In describing the battle I find, on comparing my account with that of others who fought in different portions of the field, that I have made a few omissions which I can now supply. I have stated, on what I believe to be the best authority, that General Burrows, before the battle, was in almost daily receipt of telegraphic orders, which left him little freedom of independent judgment; and I now know that he was so

trammelled by instructions of a contradictory nature that he had much excuse for the indecision he displayed, and the ignorance under which he laboured as to the movements and position of his enemy, who should never have been allowed to cross the Helmund. The retreat from that river, where a formidable position could have been held by our troops, was ordered by telegram, and in consequence we lost all clue to Ayub's movements, until too late to meet him, except, as it proved, to disadvantage and defeat. At the Helmund, and after our retreat therefrom, our cavalry made daily patrols over a circuit of fifteen or twenty miles; but these were, for some cause or another, discontinued, and while Ayub, through his spies in the villages, was day by day kept au courant with our movements, we remained completely in the dark as to his. Even after our retreat from the Helmund we had the choice of several splendid positions near Maiwand, three miles from Kushk-i-Nakhud, but none of these were taken, and we were encamped in a sort of cul-de-sac, surrounded on three sides by eminences affording every concealment to our enemy, who was thus enabled to mask his attack and enfilade us with his superior artillery. Of the gallantry of General Burrows I have not sufficiently spoken. Wherever the fighting was most desperate there he was to be found, and while two horses were shot under him he escaped without a wound, and was enabled, during the terrible night retreat, to save more than one wounded man by placing him en croupe upon his horse.

I am glad to correct my first account of our losses by telling you that stragglers kept coming in from time to time during the days following the fight, who have considerably reduced the number of our casualties,

which may now be set down about one third less than at first stated. I have so frequently alluded to the paucity of officers in our native regiments that I need not dwell upon this want, but the action of the 27th clearly demonstrates the folly of the present staff-corps system. Had Jacob's Rifles been officered up to their full complement, there is every reason to believe they would have made a better stand in front of the foe. As it was, they, having lost their leaders, gave way to panic, and, being completely demoralised, were driven in confusion upon the flank of the 66th, who up to that time were gallantly holding the enemy in check. Seven miles west of Kandahar, on the Herat road, is Kokeran, and here a small force, fortunately for us, had come out from Kandahar to meet and succour our fugitives, and with their assistance our further retreat was covered, until, almost dead with fatigue and thirst, we managed to reach the Herat gate of the city.

Meanwhile along the road between Kokeran and Kandahar the sun rose upon a long string of stiffened corpses, and the ghastly remains of those who had fallen. out from sheer exhaustion. One paramount desire to escape death animated those who still pressed on, though all order was lost, and soldiers and camp-followers, men and officers, mules and baggage - animals, guns and ammunition-carts, pushed on confusedly to the front. Surging backwards and forwards, this seething, bleeding, dust-stained mass of humanity, made up principally of the miserable crowd of camp-followers, who, in their agony and terror, overwhelmed the handful of the 66th, who were still showing a bold front, gave a mark to the enemy, which they took advantage of with their long jezails from the neighbouring cliffs.

On the arrival of the first batch of our broken column at Kandahar, principally, I may say, composed of native camp-followers, their terror-stricken faces and their accounts of the disaster spread a panic through the city, and in the confusion that ensued sentries deserted their posts, men ran away from their guard-rooms, public offices and stores were abandoned, and the impression gained ground that the foe was at the gates of the city. 250 of our cavalry, and two guns of our horse artillery meanwhile protected our rear, under Generals Burrows and Nuttall, who used all their energies to save the wounded stragglers by placing them, as they fell exhausted, on the guns and baggage-ponies which were left.

It was well for us that Burrows and Nuttall behaved as they did, and sought to retrieve with the sacrifice of their own lives the fortunes of this piteous day. A large body of Ghazis had climbed to a crag overlooking the portion of the road where our rear guard determined to make their last stand. On the summit of this almost inaccessible crag they had got one of their lighter guns in position. Large bodies of these fanatics, each with a distinguishing standard, and each under a different leader, continued to swarm along these heights, which in a measure formed a sort of amphitheatre to the road where our men were halted. Their shells crashed into our disordered masses, inflicting terrible loss, while we were utterly unable to return their fire, as a deep ravine protected them from our rifles. At all hazards it was determined to dislodge the foe, and Major Oliver, of the 66th, volunteered to attempt this feat. Taking but fifty men, he gallantly ascended the heights, the nature of the ground preventing his being seen until he had

AMBOILIAD

gained a footing with his devoted band not more than 200 yards from the unprepared mob who were firing upon us. In spite of the hot fire from their jezails, our men still held the angle of the road, and found sufficient cover in an old half- ruined fort to make arrangements for the carriage of the wounded on baggage-ponies and the few mules we had now left.

Oliver and his men had meanwhile crowned the heights, and got a lodgment behind some rocks which formed the key of the enemy's position. All had rushed after their leader with the most impetuous gallantry, and eager to avenge the loss of their favourite Colonel, killed on the previous evening. As the caps of our 'Berkshires' appeared upon the ledge of rocks to the right of where the enemy was posted, and as they dashed at the Ghazi standards, a ringing cheer, such as Britons alone can give, went forth from our stormers, whose hearts were evidently in their work, and who would take no denial to what they had resolved to achieve. The loud cheer of our British infantry seemed to carry dismay into the Ghazi ranks, and as our fellows went at them like greyhounds, with a line of living steel, they turned, and would not face our bayonets. stormers still dashed on, the standards were captured, and the spot which they considered a stronghold almost inaccessible was in our possession, and enabled the scanty remnants of our shattered brigade to continue their march almost unmolested. In this last encounter, General Burrows was seen galloping to that portion of the road wherever the fire seemed hottest-twice, thrice, did I see men struck down at his side by the bullets of the enemy; and while our chief was behaving in this gallant and noble manner, General Nuttall was

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