The Dark Defile (47 page)

226   “
to be … midnight”:
E. Teer,
The Siege of Jellalabad
, p. 30.

227   “
at last … re-established”:
21 April 1842, ELLEN PRO 30.12.89.

227   “
They had not … o’comin’ ”:
Major General Sir T. Seaton,
From Cadet to Colonel
, pp. 213–14.

227   “
useless … controversy … He had … certificate”:
Cunningham,
The Last Man
, p. 127.

228   “
intended … surrender … I … surrender”:
Quoted in Seaton,
From Cadet to Colonel
, pp. 214–15.

230   “
in a solemn … earthquakes, Brigadier”:
P. Macrory,
Kabul Catastrophe
, p. 248.

230   “
to hold … falling”:
J. Brasyer,
Memoirs
, p. 11.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

232   “
The object … Afghans”:
ELLEN PRO 30.12.98.

232   “
peremptory order … like … thunderclap”:
Quoted in Sir J. W. Kaye,
History of the War in Afghanistan
, vol. 3, p. 203.

232   “
I felt … ours”:
Quoted in P. Macrory and G. Pottinger,
The Ten-Rupee Jezail
, p. 174.

233   “
signal … Afghans”:
Quoted in ibid., p. 192.

233   The much amended drafts of Ellenborough’s letter to Pollock are in ELLEN PRO 30.12.89.

233   “
I trust … powers … would be … world”:
13 May 1842, quoted in Kaye,
History
, vol. 3, p. 199.

235   “
My father … Mussalman”:
Quoted in H. Mackenzie,
Storms and Sunshine of a Soldier’s Life
, p. 347.

235   “
acknowledged murderer … deceived … destroyed … so great a criminal”:
15 May 1842, ELLEN PRO 30.12.98.

236   “
miserably … weak”:
V. Eyre,
The Military Operations of Kabul
, p. 318.

236   “
we shall … safe”:
All quotations in this paragraphs are from Ellenborough’s letter of 7 June 1842, ELLEN PRO 30.12.89.

236   “
stand alone”:
Quoted in Macrory and Pottinger,
The Ten Rupee Jezail
, p. 173.

237   “
[Ellenborough’s] want … inexcusable”:
Quoted in P. Macrory,
Kabul Catastrophe
, p. 254.

237   “
the case … prohibit it”:
6 July 1842, ELLEN PRO 30.12.89.

237   “
in triumph … disaster”:
Ibid.

237   “
The governor-general … prefer”:
All quotes in this paragraph are from Ellenborough’s letters of 23 and 29 July 1842, ELLEN PRO 30.12.98.

238   “
eager … anywhere”:
E. Teer,
The Siege of Jellalabad
, p. 36.

239   “
an endless … along”:
Quoted in
Journal of the Society for Historical Research
, vol. 55, 1977, p. 83.

239   “
literally … countrymen”:
Augustus Abbott, quoted in Macrory and Pottinger,
The Ten-Rupee Jezail
, p. 179.

240   
By 12 September … before them”:
All quotes in these two paragraphs are from F. G. Greenwood,
Narrative of the Late Victorious Campaigns in Afghanistan
, pp. 212–13, 217–19.

241   “
awful … recognisable”:
Major General Sir T. Seaton,
From Cadet to Colonel
, pp. 222–23.

243   “
had thrown … rescue them?”:
Quoted in Kaye,
History
, vol. 3, p. 349.

243   “
thrusting … place … she … another”:
Colonel Sir R. Warburton [Mrs. Warburton’s son]
Eighteen Years in the Khyber, 1879–1898
, p. 5.

244   “
a splendid … glass”:
J. Brasyer,
Memoirs
, p. 12.

244   “
the cry … town”:
Major Rawlinson, quoted in Kaye,
History
, vol. 3, p. 369.

244   “
I have … country”:
Quoted in P. G. Fredericks,
The Sepoy and the Cossack
, p. 118.

244   “
strewn … conversation!”:
Diary of N. Chamberlain, 15 October 1842, quoted in G. W. Forrest,
Life of Field-Marshal Sir Neville Chamberlain
, p. 153.

245   “
so … humiliation”:
Kaye,
History
, vol. 3, p. 350.

EPILOGUE

246   “
1st … outbreak”:
P. Macrory,
Kabul Catastrophe
, p. 267.

247   “
The calamity … requite’ ”:
Sir J. W. Kaye,
History of the War in Afghanistan
, vol. 3, p. 402.

247   
Henry Lushington … again and again”:
Quotes in these two paragraphs are from H. Lushington,
A Great Country’s Little Wars in England, Afghanistan and Scinde
, pp. 24, 27, 75, 124 and 168.

248   “
This … hostile”:
H. B. Hanna,
The Second Afghan War
, vol. 1, p. 1.

248   
Outside Britain … Hong Kong:
Further details of the United States’ reaction are contained in Dr. L. Marshall’s article “American Public Opinion and the First Afghan War,”
Pakistan Journal of American Studies
, vol. 2, no. 1, March 1984, pp. 1–11.

250   “
They would … anything”:
Burnes, quoted in Sir J. W. Kaye,
Lives of Indian Officers
, vol. 2, p. 65.

253   “
introducing … Company … We … be”:
Quoted in D. S. Richards,
The Savage Frontier,
pp. 58–59.

256   “
I … country”:
Quoted in J. Stewart,
Crimson Snow
, p. 216.

257   
In the summer … EMBASSY:
All quotes in this paragraph are from Richards,
The Savage Frontier
, p. 84.

258   “
Remember … own”:
Quoted in F. Morley,
Life of Gladstone
, vol. 3, p. 595.

258   “
[I] … India”:
Quoted in Richards,
The Savage Frontier
, p. 101.

259   “
Young … shame”:
There are several different versions of these verses. See L. Dupree,
Afghanistan
, p. 411 and D. Loyn,
Butcher and Bolt
, p. 120.

260   
Winston Churchill … sight”:
All quotes in this paragraph are from W. S. Churchill,
The Story of the Malakand Field Force
, pp. 126–27.

260   “
September … revives”:
Ibid., pp. 114–15.

262   
Part … hand”:
All quotes in this paragraph are from ibid., pp. 165 and 188.

262   “
There is … people”:
Quoted in J. Morris,
Pax Britannica
, p. 418.

262   “
Burning … revenge”:
Quoted in D. Loyn,
Butcher and Bolt
, p. 160.

262   “
placed … Paradise”:
Quoted in ibid., p. 147.

262   “
As … thawed”:
Churchill,
The Story of the Malakand Field Force
, p. 192.

264   “
One … west”:
Quoted in Richards,
The Savage Frontier
, p. 163.

268   “
Do you … Shah Shuja?”:
Quoted in Loyn,
Butcher and Bolt
, p. 272.

Footnotes

1
One of the earliest governors of Madras was Elihu Yale, who acquired in India the fortune out of which he founded the university that bears his name.

2
By the start of the First Afghan War improvements to communications were close but not yet in place. In 1837 Samuel Morse exhibited his first electric telegraph in New York, and in 1838 the British ship
Sirius
was the first to steam continuously across the Atlantic.

3
Among Tipu’s prized possessions, seized by the British, was a near life-size mechanical model of a tiger consuming an English soldier. It is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

4
A young British officer, Captain Arthur Conolly, probably coined the term
the Great Game
in the 1830s before losing his life playing it, but Rudyard Kipling popularized it. His world of secret agents and assassins, disguises and subterfuge, concealed messages and forged letters evoked in novels such as
Kim
was reasonably accurate, if pervaded with some of the romanticism that often clouded British perceptions of the region and its people.

5
Colin Mackenzie, a British officer who later met Zaman Shah, reported, “He still goes through the ceremony of having a glass held up before him during his toilette,” even though he had been blind for many years. “So great a man cannot be vulgarly blind! This trifling trait shows the animus of his race, which is that of insane pride.”

6
Punjab
means “Land of the Five Rivers” and comes from the Persian
panj
, meaning “five,” and
ab
, meaning “waters,” because five tributaries of the Indus flow through it. The drink punch also derives from the word
panj
because it has five ingredients: rum, sugar, lemon, water and spice.

7
Scots made a disproportionately large contribution to the making and the running of the British Empire at all levels.

8
The horses are said to have soon died from a mixture of overfeeding and inactivity.

9
These are the statues recently destroyed by the Taliban, though Burnes noted that they had already suffered damage.

10
The name Zerafshan means “gold-bearing.” The river also flows past Samarkand.

11
The next person to display it and to call himself Amir-al-Mominin would be Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader, in 1996.

12
The British Museum in London has many specimens collected by Masson, including 6,200 coins.

13
In a similar way, in the twentieth-century the Western powers would be reluctant to name China and Russia as their enemy formally when engaging in proxy wars.

14
The origin of the name Brown Bess isn’t certain, although some claim it derives from an order by the Duke of Wellington to his soldiers at Waterloo to paint their gun barrels brown so the enemy would not be alerted to troop movements by seeing them gleaming in the sun.

15
The majority of British soldiers were illiterate, but for those who were not and were willing to carry the extra weight in their packs, newly available novels included works by Charles Dickens such as
The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist
and
Nicholas Nickleby
.

16
Suttee—the rite whereby living wives and concubines joined their dead husbands on their funeral pyres, sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not—was practiced by Sikhs and Hindus but had been outlawed in British India.

17
Shrapnel shells—devices which explode in flight, scattering lead shot and other lethal materials—were invented by the British artillery officer Henry Shrapnel in the 1790s.

18
Another young British officer, Captain James Abbot, had earlier tried but failed to secure the release of the Russian slaves at Khiva. Abbot later had a successful military career in British India. Abbottabad, where Osama Bin Laden was killed, was named for him.

19
The Hazaras, who inhabit western Afghanistan, are believed by some to be the descendants of the Mongol cavalry of Genghis Khan. As an ethnic minority and as Shia Muslims in a country where the majority follow Sunni Islam, they were traditionally servants, even slaves, and were and are still looked down on by other tribes.

20
Updating monetary values is notoriously difficult, but if one uses the Bank of England calculator, £1.25 million equates to £108 million in today’s values, or $178 million if converted at current exchange rates.

21
Auckland is often blamed for specifically instructing Macnaghten to take this step but in fact only argued for economy, learning of the particular measure after the event.

22
In early 2009, U.S. vice president Joseph Biden is said to have suggested to President Karzai in a similar vein that he was little more than “mayor of Kabul.”

23
An Irish private would later claim to have spotted one of the men in Jalalabad. Perhaps more confident in his powers of identification than he should have been, he would administer his own justice by holding him facedown in a deep pool until he drowned.

24
Pottinger told Mackenzie that he had earlier heard Akbar Khan—unaware that Pottinger understood both languages—shout, “ ‘Slay them’ in Pashtu, though he called to them to stop firing in Persian.”

25
According to Lady Sale, among others, Akbar Khan had predicted that only one survivor would reach Jalalabad. It is possible that he engineered this outcome. He was certainly intelligent enough to appreciate its potential effect on British morale.

26
So convinced had the Afghans become of English duplicity and cunning that Taliban troops in 2005 nicknamed one of their leaders “Mullah Dadullah”—“The Lame Englishman”—on account of his war wound and particular deviousness.

27
The term
conspiracy of optimism
was used by a recent former British ambassador in Kabul to describe current official perceptions of the present coalition intervention.

28
Auckland was strongly criticized on his return to Britain. However, after a further change of government he again became First Lord of the Admiralty. He died unexpectedly on New Year’s Day, 1849.

29
Napier never sent the punning telegram consisting of the single word PECCAVI, which was an invention of the humorous magazine
Punch
. Recipients would at once have recognized the word as Latin for “I have sinned” and realized Napier was actually saying, “I have Sind.”

30
Lady Sale died in 1853 in Cape Town.

31
During one of the running engagements, a British officer, General Hugh Gough, was saved from a bullet by a suit of chain mail, probably but not certainly the last British soldier to be saved by personal armor until the advent of Kevlar and similar modern body armor.