The Dark Defile (42 page)
Authors: Diana Preston
The Afghans see the last two centuries of interaction with the European powers and the United States as one continuum. A British officer reported recently how an Afghan government minister had reproached him that the British had burned down the covered market in Kabul. Fearing some hasty action by his nation’s troops, he eventually discovered that the remark had referred to the burning of the bazaar by the British at the end of the First Afghan War. Along the route of the catastrophic retreat Afghans today show coins seized from the British baggage train, which have passed down their families, and recount the deeds of their ancestors in slaying the infidel British, while pointing to the sites of the battles. Invoking events long past, a recent Taliban recruiting slogan asked Afghans, “
Do you want to be remembered as a son of Dost Mohammed or a son of Shah Shuja?
”
I wrote this book with my husband Michael, my partner in writing and in life, whose recollections of traveling through the barren passes from Kabul to Peshawar first made me want to tell this story. I also want to acknowledge the voices of the past. I could not have written this without the letters, diaries and papers of those who experienced the traumatic events of Britain’s first military intervention in Afghanistan. I am indebted to the staff of the British National Archives, the British Library, the Bodleian Library, the London Library and the National Army Museum for their help, patience and professionalism in helping me track such sources down—whether an army chaplain’s memoirs or a message scribbled in Latin by a beleaguered British officer on a strip of paper to be smuggled out of Afghanistan to India.
For helping me understand the reality of fighting in Afghanistan in the twenty-first century, I am very grateful to several young Britons currently serving there for sharing their experiences and perceptions.
I must also thank friends for commenting on the text, especially Kim Lewison, Neil Munro and Clinton Leeks.
Lastly, my warm thanks to George Gibson, Mike O’Connor and their colleagues at Walker & Company and Bloomsbury USA, and to my agents Michael Carlisle of Inkwell Management, New York, and Bill Hamilton of A. M. Heath and Co. in London.
Dost Mohammed, ruler of Afghanistan, temporarily deposed by the British.
Shah Shuja, restored to the Afghan throne by the British as their puppet king.
George Eden, Lord Auckland, British governor-general of India.
Sir William Hay Macnaghten, British envoy in Kabul. (© National Portrait Gallery, London.)
Lord Melbourne, a member of the Whig Party and British prime minister at the beginning of the First Afghan War.
Sir Robert Peel, a member of the Tory Party and British prime minister at the end of the First Afghan War.
Lord Palmerston, foreign secretary under Lord Melbourne.
The narrow defile of the Bolan Pass. (© The British Library Board [X 614 pl.5]. “Entrance from the Bolan Pass from Dadur,” by James Atkinson.)
The Khyber Pass. (© The British Library Board [X 562 pl.28]. “Khyber Pass. Lundikana,” by James Atkinson.)
Bala Hissar Gate, Kabul, photographed in 1879. (© The British Library Board [Photo 197/31]. “Bala Hissar Gate, Leading to City [of Kabul],” by Bengal Sappers and Miners.)
