With Kelly to ChitralBeynon, William George Laurence, Sir
History
With Kelly to Chitral
Beynon, William George Laurence, Sir
India -- History -- Chitral Campaign, 1895
We dropped over the bluff and forded the Laspur stream, which was
hardly over the men's knees, and then kept along the bed of the river,
with a few scouts well up the hills on our left, the Mastuj or Yarkhun
river protecting our right. After about two miles we came to a small
homestead and Humayun told me there was a wounded man inside; so in I
went, and found the poor beggar with his right leg smashed by a bullet
just above the knee. There were a lot of women and children and two men
in the house, his brothers, so I gave them a note to Luard, and told
them to carry the man into Mastuj, which they did. Luard set his leg,
and by this time he is no doubt well and happy.
Shortly after that, we climbed up from the bed of the river on to a
narrow ledge which ran along the foot of the hills about two hundred
feet above the river. Here we left our horses, and went scrambling along
among the fallen débris for about half a mile, when we came to the foot
of a stone slope, and I noticed our advanced guard had halted on the
top, and on asking the reason, Humayun said that the enemy were
occupying the next spurs. So up we went, and found the fact true enough,
but the next spur was some thousand yards away; so on we went across
that slope, and on to the next, eventually reaching a very nice little
place some eight hundred yards from the spur occupied by the enemy.
From here I could see pretty well the whole of the position occupied by
the enemy, except the end of the Nisa Gol nullah where it debouches on
to the river. I tried going up the hill, but that only made matters
worse, so I determined to sketch what I could see from here, and then
try across the river. In order not to be interrupted, I sent five men
well up the hill on to a spur, from whence they could see any man who
tried to sneak up for a shot, and spread out the rest in skirmishing
order to my front. Humayun and Akbar got behind a rock and went to
sleep, and I got out my telescope and set to work.
The enemy seemed rather interested in our proceedings--we could see
their heads bobbing up and down behind the sangars; but after we had
settled down, they gradually took courage, and, coming outside, sat down
to watch us. This was very nice of them, for very soon I had a complete
list of the garrison of each sangar, and from where I was could see the
sort of gun they were armed with,--a few rifles among the lower sangars,
and nearly all matchlocks among the higher and more inaccessible ones.
It was a calm, peaceful scene: the enemy sitting outside their sangars
sunning themselves; and my men lying down, a few watching, the rest
sleeping, one or two enjoying a friendly pipe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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