Table Of ContentN A R R A T I V E
WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN.
BY CAPTAIN HENRY HAVELOCK.
ISTH BBQIMSNT (LIGHT INFANTRY).
AIDE-DE-CAMP TO MAJOR-OENEBAL SIR WILLOUOHBY COTTON,
G.C.B. AND K.C.H.,
COYYANDINO THE BENGAL FORCES IN APFOHANI~TAN.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
LONDON:
HENRY COLBURN, PUBLISHER.
13, GBEAT MARLBOROUQH BTRqET.
1840.
WHITING, BEAUFORT HOL'BE, SIRABD.
MAJORGEN ERAL
SIR WILLOUGHBY COTTON,
G.C.B. K.C.H.
rrD
-
I DEDICdTE THIS HASTY NARRATIVE
IN mxxn 01 MI O~ATEPULU ~LL.CIION 01
IRK BONOUU 01 IKUVINO IN TRB IAMB AUYT WlTW RIM.
H. HAVELOCK.
Camp &hi,
14th Oebkr, 1M9.
A 2
INTRODUCTION.
I SUBMIT this humed sketch of events to
the indulgence of the public, under the persua-
sion that it will be more acceptable, if now de-
spatched to England, in ita present state,
than it would be three months later, after
the most careful revision, and the addition of
such information as I might, in the interval, be
enabled to collect. I desire in this matter to
profit by experience. When, thirteen years ago,
I traced the history of a portion of the operations
in Ava, I had the mortification to discover that,
during the six months which had elapsed,
whilst I was employed in carrying the work
through the press, burdened as I was at the
vi INTRODUCTION. ,
time with other avocations, a complete revolu-
tion had taken place in the minds of men touch-
ing the subject of my narrative. All interest in
the events recorded therein had died sway ; and,
as three other histories had been given to the
world in the mean time, my recital, though
developing some new facts, and some views of
affaira very different from those of the writers
who had got the start of me, was regarded with
the marked apathy of a wearied auditory, ex-
cepting within a narrow circle in India. I have
therefore, preferred giving publicity on this
occasion, without delay, to the contents of a
personal journal, to losing the valuable time
which would have been consumed in putting
my materials into the more regular form of an
historic memoir.
The hope of framing some acceptable
memorial of our exertions in Affghanistan, was
formed at the time of my appointment to
the divisional staff of the Army of the Indus ;
but was dashed, at first, with fears springing
from a recollection of past discouragements.
My former effort as an author had not met
IN I'RODUCTION. vii
with that speciea of reward, which is commonly
looked for at the present day. No enterprising
publisher had taken under his auspices my
" Memoir of the Three Campaigne." It had
been printed in a distant land, and thus placed
beyond the reach of the praiae or blame of the
constituted critics of Britain; and, in conse-
quence of the short memories of a large propor-
tion of my subscribers, the proceeds of the publi-
cation had ecarcely defrayed the cost of giving it
to a limited number of readers. Yet a counterpoise
to these mortifications was not wanting. A few
officers of rank, whose discernment and candour
I could not doubt, even in my own cause, had
characterized the performance as honest and
faithful ; three commanders-in-chief in Ind~a
had spoken favourably of it to others, as well as
to myself; and I have been deceived if, when
war was likely to be renewed in the Burman
Empire, and information regarding it had again
become valuable, a fourth general placed in
the same situation of responsible control above
adverted to, did not find, or profess to find, in
the pages of the neglected lieutenant, develop-
.. .
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
ments of fact and reasoning, which he had in
vain sought in books on the same topic, that had
enjoyed the sunshine of a far more brilliant
popularity.
Doubting, nevertheless, and balancing, as
Alfieri phrases it, fra il si, ed il no, I reached
Ferozepore. Here it was that a civil func-
tionary distinguished for talent, addressing
an officer of rank, assured him that our pro-
jected advance into Affghanistan, would be
no more than a promenade vnilitaire. The
expression excited much attention at the time,
and many were a little angry at the prognos-
tication. Perhaps it aided me in coming
to a conclusion as to my intended authorship.
I knew that we were to traverse countries, the
natural features, government, and moral con-
dition of which might form in themselves an in-
teresting subject for literary exertion, even after
the reception by the world of the memoirs, and
books of travels of Jonas Hanway, Chardin,
Christie, Pottinger, Elphinstone, Burnes,
Connolly, and Boileau. But, to the honours
of a graphic tourist I was determined n d to
INTRODUCTION. k
aspire. If we were only to play the part of
well-escorted travellers, I resolved to be silent ;
but if, in opeuing the Indus in fact, as had
hitherto been done in treaties and
merely,--if, in placing our relations with Sinde
upon a stable 'and satisfactory basis, in substi-
tuting a friendly for an ill-affected and trea-
cherous power in Affghanistan, and raising up
beyond the line of the Helmund a barrier
against the aggression^ of Persia, we should
encounter armed resistance, I was ready once
more to hke up the pen to record the exertions
of my fellow soldiers, their character, and con-
sequences.
The reader must pronounce whether, in
the spirited affair at Ghuznee, there was a
sufficient ground of martial achievement for
my final determination again to come before
the public aa an author. In whatever way he
may decide, I at least felt that I had not mate-
rials, even after that brief exploit, for a grave
military memoir; but having, from the com-
mencement of our march into Lower Sinde,
A 3
X INTRODUCTION.
begun to keep a hasty record of our daily
movements accompanied by some notice of the
countries through which the army was passing,
I came afterwards to the resolution of working
it up into a narrative form, instead of usingit,
as I had originally purposed, merely as an aid
in completing a work of a more elaborate
stamp. "War," said the poet, more than fifty
gears ago,
'' Wu is a game wbicb, wen their mbjeots wile.
a' King would not play at!'
The time seems slowly to have come round in
Europe- when both rulers and people are, in
some measure, disposed to profit by this hint.
Neither monarchs nor their subjects are, I
think, prepared to rush, with the same headlong
haste which characterized former periods, into
the evils and horrors of belligerency. They
appear at least willing now, as of yore they
often were not, to hear before they strike. But
the sarcasm and the counsel scarcely extend to
British India ; for, in the first place, there the
governed have no voice or opinion at all in tlie
