Table Of Content

N 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 materials, 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