From Dadur the regiment continued its route; and penetrating the Bolan Pass, marched between mountains covered with snow: in some places the pass was not more than seventeen yards wide, with gloomy crags rising perpendicularly in awful grandeur on each side. In these wild regions bands of Beloochees lurked to avail themselves of every opportunity to follow their predatory habits, and they murdered several camp followers, and plundered some baggage. Issuing from this gloomy defile of more than fifty miles in length, the regiment entered the Dusht-i be-doulut, or the unhappy-desert, and halted a short time at Quettah, situated in the centre of the valley of Shawl, of which it is the capital. Supplies of provisions could not be procured for the army in these sterile regions; the issue of grain for the horses ceased, the soldiers were placed upon half rations, the native followers upon quarter, and several men, who were searching for forage at a distance from the camp, were murdered by the ferocious natives, who hovered round the army to avail themselves of every opportunity of destroying small parties. The soldiers bore all the hardships to which they were subjected with fortitude, and in the early part of April the army commenced its march through the vale of Shawl; it descended the picturesque height of Kotul full one thousand feet, into the valley of Koochlak; forded rivers; traversed a difficult country spangled with flowers of every hue, and passed the height of Kozak, where the soldiers had to drag the artillery over the precipice with ropes. The army, surmounting every obstacle with patient perseverance, continued to press forward; the rulers of western Affghanistan were struck with dismay at the appearance of the formidable British host, and they fled from the capital, leaving the country to the Sovereign whom the British were advancing to restore. As the army continued its march, various classes of individuals tendered their submission, and on the 27th of April the British troops arrived at Candahar, the capital of western Affghanistan, where the soldiers obtained provisions and repose. The tents were pitched in the grassy meadows, among enclosures covered with crops of grain. The watery exhalations from the low grounds proved injurious to the health of the men, and the great heat experienced in the tents, with a saline impregnation in the water, augmented the number of the sick. Breaking up from Candahar on the 27th of June, to reduce the remainder of the Shah’s dominions to obedience to his authority, the army advanced along a valley of dismal sterility to the Turnuk river; then proceeding up the right bank, traversed the country of the Western Ghilzees, and arrived in the vicinity of _Ghuznee_, a strong fortress garrisoned by three thousand Affghans under Prince Mahomed Hyder Khan, who were well provided with stores, and had determined on a desperate defence: they had blocked up every gate by masonry excepting one.