With Kelly to ChitralBeynon, William George Laurence, Sir
History
With Kelly to Chitral
Beynon, William George Laurence, Sir
India -- History -- Chitral Campaign, 1895
So ended the march of Colonel Kelly's column to Chitral. Our record, on
the whole, was not bad, though, of course, judging by actual distance,
we had not done much; it was more the difficult nature of the ground and
the altitude at which some of it was done that lent interest to the
march, and I am unfeignedly glad my luck caused me to participate in it.
The next day the Kashmir troops of the garrison came out and camped with
us, and revelled in the fresh air after the poisonous atmosphere of the
fort. Poor chaps! they were walking skeletons, bloodless, and as quiet
as the ghosts they resembled, most of them reduced to jerseys and
garments of any description, but still plucky and of good heart. They
cheered up wonderfully in a few days with good fresh air and sleep, and
marched from Chitral quite briskly when they left.
The next day I again went round the fort and got some photos, which
follow. One of the British officers of the garrison beneath the gun
tower, which was set on fire, and during the extinguishing of which
Surgeon-Major Robertson, the British agent, was wounded by a Snider
bullet. There is also the loophole, afterwards made, from which a sentry
inside the tower could fire at anyone within a few feet. Then I got
Harley to show me the site of his sortie, and pretty grisly the place
looked, but unfortunately the photograph I took, showing the mine lying
open like a ditch to the foot of the tower, was a "wrong un." But I
succeeded in getting one showing the mouth of the mine, with the
excavated earth.
Then I took one of the sangars from the interior, with the little
shelters used by the Pathans when not amusing themselves with rifle
practice. The water tower is just visible through the foliage.
Then I took a photo of the fort from the corner by the gun tower looking
towards the musjid, which is shown in a photo at the beginning of the
book, but taken in more peaceful times. It shows the bridge in the
distance, which the fire of the Sikhs made too hot for the Chitralis,
who had to cross over the hills in the daytime.
Then I took Harley and the two native officers of the 14th Sikhs,
Subadar Gurmuskh Singh and Jemadar Atta Singh. Atta Singh put on white
gloves to grace the occasion, but evidently trembled violently during
the exposure.
I got a shot at Borradaile sitting in a shelter Oldham had run up for
himself; the hawk and spear were looted at Sanoghar, I think. Borradaile
looks very like Diogenes in his tub. I also took some Kafirs who
strolled into camp. We used to buy their daggers, but they got to asking
as much as twenty rupees for a good one after a time. Every Kaffir has a
dagger, some of them very good ones, but roughly finished.
After we had been some days in Chitral, some of the 3rd Brigade under
General Gatacre arrived, followed by General Low and the headquarter
staff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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