little Shapoor was at his father's side. The MajorGenerals, Brigadiers, and the whole of the departmental and personal staff of both Presidencies, with all the officers politically employed, were in attendance; and let me not forget to record that Moonshee Mohun Lall, a traveller and an author, as well as his talented master, appeared on horseback on this occasion in a new upper garment of very gay colors, and under a turban of very admirable fold and majestic dimensions, and was one of the gayest, as well as the most sagacious and successful personages in the whole cortège. 'The cavalcade had to traverse nearly three miles of rocky and very dusty road, the rays of the sun being at the time very inconveniently brilliant and fervid. The monarch enduring this for his people's sake, and we for his Majesty's, passed on. On our left, we saw in the plains little eminences, crowded with forts and towers, which looked exactly like those of the Ghiljees seen through a magnifying glass. But it was not until we nearly approached the town that we perceived wherein the true beauty of the site of Cabool consists. Above us, indeed, on our right, was only a bare mountain, crowned with an almost useless wall, but in the vale below were stretched out to such an extent that the eye vainly endeavored to reach the boundaries of them, the far-famed orchards of Cabool.' It was expected that Candahar would have been the scene of a protracted siege, or the horrors of a storm; but, as the army approached, it was announced that the hostile occupants had abandoned all thoughts of opposition, and left the capital, flying, not towards Cabool, but in the direction of Helmund and Persia, and that Shah Soojah was pressing on to take possession. This bloodless victory was followed by another triumphal entry. On the 25th of April,' says Mr. Kaye, Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk re-entered the chief city of Western Affghanistan. As he neared the walls of Candahar, riding in advance of his contingent, some Douranee horsemen had gone out to welcome him; and, as the cavalcade moved forward, others met him with their salutations and obeisances, and swelled the number of his adherents. It is said, that some fifteen hundred men, for the most part well dressed and well mounted, joined him before he reached the city. Accompanied by the British Envoy and his staff, and the principal officers of his contingent, and followed by a crowd of Affghans, the Shah entered Candahar. There was a vast assemblage of gazers. The women clustered in the balconies of the houses, or gathered upon the roofs. The men thronged the public streets. It was a busy and exciting scene. The curiosity was intense. The enthusiasm may have been the same. As the royal cortége advanced, the people strewed flowers before the horses' feet, and loaves of bread were scattered in their way. There were shouts, and the sound of music, and the noise of firing; and the faces of the crowd were bright with cheerful excitement. The popular exclamations which were flung into the air have been duly reported. The people shouted out, "Welcome to the son of Timour Shah!" "We look to you for protection!" "Candahar is rescued from the Barukzyes!" "May your enemies be destroyed!" It was said, by some who rode beside the Shah, to have been the most heart-stirring scene they ever witnessed in their lives. Thus greeted and thus attended, the King rode to the tomb of Ahmed Shah, and offered up thanksgivings and prayers. Then the procession returned again through the city, again to be greeted with joyous acclamations." CHAPTER VI. FROM 1840 TO OCTOBER 1841. ON THE STAFF OF GENERAL ELPHINSTONE, AS PERSIAN INTER- MEN. IN 1840, Captain Havelock was placed on the staff of General Elphinstone, as Persian interpreter. It is not within the design of this memoir to criticise the policy by which General Elphinstone was placed in command of the army in Affghanistan, nor is it necessary in these pages to discuss the merits of the expedition. Of the unfitness of the General for the position in which he was placed, there has long since been but one opinion. The view taken of this question by Mr. Kaye* does justice to all parties, and is the best apology that can be made for General Elphinstone, or rather for his friends. 'The officers who served under General Elphinstone throughout this unhappy crisis have invariably spoken of him with tenderness and respect. He was an honorable gentleman-a kind-hearted man-and he had once been a good soldier. His personal courage Kaye's 'Affghanistan,' vol, ii, 48, 44, has never been questioned. Regardless of danger, and patient under trial, he exposed himself without reserve, and bore his sufferings without complaining. But disease had broken down his physical strength, and enfeebled his understanding. He had almost lost the use of his limbs. He could not walk; he could hardly ride. The gout had crippled him in a manner that it was painful to contemplate. You could not see him engaged in the most ordinary concerns of peaceful life without an emotion of lively compassion. He was fit only for the invalid establishment on the day of his arrival in India. It was a mockery to talk of his commanding a division of the army in the quietest district of Hindostan. But he was selected by Lord Auckland, against the advice of the Commander-inChief, and the remonstrances of the Agra governor, to assume the command of that division of the army which of all others was most likely to be actively employed, and which demanded, therefore, the greatest amount of energy and activity in its commander. Among the general officers of the Indian army were many able and energetic men with active limbs and clear understanding. There was one-a cripple, whose mental vigor much suffering had enfeebled; and he was selected by the Governor-General to command the army in Affghanistan.' The writer has been favored with an interesting description of the habits of Havelock at this period, and of the means he employed for promoting the knowledge of the gospel and the devotional exercises of public worship among his men and brother officers. |