With Kelly to ChitralBeynon, William George Laurence, Sir
History
With Kelly to Chitral
Beynon, William George Laurence, Sir
India -- History -- Chitral Campaign, 1895
We had now reached the snow line, and our green goggles were taken into
use. The march of our column churned the snow and mud into a greasy
slime, and the going was very tiring. However, we came in sight of the
Ghizr post by 2 P.M., and Gough, of the 2nd Gurkhas, who was in command,
came out to meet us. From him we learned that none of his messengers
that had been sent to Mastuj with letters had returned, and it was now
some ten days since the last communication had reached him; so it became
evident that the enemy were between Laspur and Mastuj. We knew that they
had not crossed the pass, or we should have seen them before this, so we
were pretty hopeful of a fight soon after crossing the pass, and we were
not disappointed. At Ghizr we also found Oldham, a Sapper subaltern, who
had preceded us by a few days. He had with him a party of Kashmir
Sappers and Miners, who were now armed with Snider carbines. The post,
which consisted of a block of isolated houses, had been fortified and
surrounded with a thorn zareba, and was only sufficiently large for the
garrison of Kashmir troops then holding it, so our men were billeted in
the neighbouring houses, one of which we turned into a mess and quarters
for ourselves.
We halted on the 30th March, in order to allow the second detachment of
the Pioneers and the guns to come up, as from here Colonel Kelly
intended to march in one column. Here also we picked up the Hunza and
Nagar Levies, numbering a hundred men, under their own leaders. They
were posted in the village of Teru, some four miles up the valley, and
from there could give timely warning if any hostile force crossed the
pass. Wazir Humayun led the Hunza crowd, and Wazir Taifu the Nagar. I
got to know Humayun very well indeed, and a right good sort he is. He
had formerly lived for some five years in Chitral, when Raja Safdar Ali
Khan of Hunza had made things too hot for him, but when Safdar Ali fled
when we took the country in 1891-92, he was reinstated. Wazir Taifu I
did not get to know so well, as the Nagar Levies were left behind at
Mastuj, when we went on from there to Chitral. The second detachment
under Peterson, and the guns with Stewart, got into camp some time
after midday on the 31st March.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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