December 11th to 23rd. General Charles Gough's brigade in the Bala Hissar is busy at work, cutting a broad road from the Shah Shehr Gate (that facing Siah Sung) to the gate overlooking the city near Chandaul. The broken places in the walls have been built up, and improvements made by the Engineers, so as to give shelter to the garrison if an attack were attempted from the city. The Sherderwaza Heights immediately above the Bala Hissar are also to be held in future by one battalion (say 500 or 600 men), stationed in three strong towers, now in course of construction. The first and strongest of these is on the spur above the Arsenal; a steep point completely commanding the Upper Bala Hissar already being crowned with strong walls, the basement of the tower. The crest of the Sherderwaza Heights already boasts of a strong wall, part of the Afghan fortifications; and this position is naturally so strong, the hillside sloping down almost perpendicularly towards Chardeh Valley, that with the two towers now being built it could defy assault from any force destitute of artillery. The ridge running down westwards to the Cabul gorge would also be held if an enemy menaced the city, and on the Asmai Heights on the northern side a strong fort is to be built. The military roads converging upon Dehmazung from Sherpur cantonments unite in Deh-i-Afghan and pass by the foot of the Asmai hill, whence they are to be continued in one broad road until the main Bamian Road through Chardeh Valley is gained. The towers above mentioned are to be provisioned and watered, always, for ten days, and are to contain small-arm ammunition equal to the requirements of a battalion for that period, calculated on the basis of serious fighting. A road broad enough for guns will also be made about Cabul itself from Deh-i-Afghan to the Bala Hissar, in addition to a circular road about Sherpur cantonments. Another road is to be cut from Bemaru village to the Siah Sung Heights, with a bridge spanning the Cabul river; and yet another from the 67th Gateway (near the south-eastern bastion) direct to the Bala Hissar, this also crossing the river by a new pile bridge. These two roads will ensure communication between Sherpur and the fortress without our troops having to pass near the city walls; and will give us alternative bridges over the Cabul, whereas we formerly had only one bridge, that on the city road from Sherpur.

Military Precautions.

297

With regard to the cantonment itself, the clear space for 1,000 yards about the walls is already partly made, although the débris of forts and villages destroyed requires much levelling before it can be said that all cover has been swept away. The blocks of solid mud and the loose rubbish could be utilized by skirmishers advancing to attack, and until this accumulation of ruins has been thoroughly levelled, our rifle-fire will not have a fair chance. On the eastern point of the Bemaru Heights a very strong tower is now being rapidly built, and the hill about it is to be scarped for ten yards, so that to assault it from outside cantonments would be impossible. At the north-west corner, below the western end of Bemaru Heights, the line of trenches with their parapet of guncarriage wheels (described in one of my letters written during the siege) will also be strengthened by a broad and deep wet ditch.

CHAPTER XXII.

Philanthropic Work in Cabul-Dr. Owen's Hospital-Prejudices gradually OvercomeThe Attendance of Women-The Hospital Wrecked by Fanatics-The Place Reestablished-A Visit to the Wards-Gratitude of the Patients-Treatment of Men Wounded in Action-Confidence in the Surgeon's Skill-Life in Sherpur-Freedom of Criticism upon Current Events-The Sherpur Club-Amusements of the Garrison -The First Theatre The Pleasures of Skating and Sliding-A Snow Fight on Bemaru Heights-"How they Live in Cabul"-Zenana Life-Prevalence of Intrigues-Shopping-A Cabul Interior-A Lady's Dress-Cabuli Children-Character of the Citizens of Cabul-The Sirdar-Ambition and Sensuality-A Sirdar's House The Rites of Hospitality-The Cabul Trader-His Manner of doing Business.

22nd January, 1880.

As there seems to be an impression gaining ground, at least in England, that our army of occupation have adopted the Russian plan of settling a country-the institution of a Reign of Terrorit may be worth while to describe fully the means which we have taken for drawing the people towards us. After the capture of Cabul in October, it was found that there was a vast amount of disease and suffering among the poorer inhabitants of the city, and that native surgery never attempted to cope with these, except

in the rudest way. With the benevolence which generally characterizes our commanders in the field, Sir F. Roberts ordered a charitable dispensary and hospital to be opened in Cabul; and Dr. Owen, Staff Surgeon, was placed in charge of the institution. The Kotwal's house, vacant by reason of the execution of that official for complicity in the Massacre, was turned into a hospital, and work was begun at once. The rooms were cleaned and put in order, wards for men and women arranged, the tottering walls shaken by earthquakes made safe and sound, and then patients were invited to attend. On November 21st, Dr. Owen was first "consulted," twelve wretched beings, suffering from various ailments, coming to him for treatment. They were carefully treated, and although, on account of the scarcity of English drugs in camp, no elaborate prescriptions could be made up, the best bazaar medicines were freely given. The news of the Sircar's latest eccentricity soon began to spread throughout Cabul, and for several days the place was visited by little crowds of persons, who were either sick, or had sick friends who needed treatment. With the suspicion always at work in Afghan minds, that every act of the stranger has some obscure tendency to harm them, the citizens were full of mistrust. They could not appreciate the generosity of their conquerors, and argued that it was absurd to suppose that men who had come to destroy Cabul would sink their ideas of vengeance, and, instead of taking life, would save life and make it worth living. Gradually their ideas changed; they believed in the disinterestedness of the English hakeem (who, by the way, was more than once mistaken for Sir Louis Cavagnari, risen to life again, Dr. Owen slightly resembling our dead Envoy). The number of patients increased; but, with customary jealousy, no women were permitted to seek relief: there might be a plot to invade the sanctity of the Afghan household. But attentions of this sort were not thrust upon the citizens, and some women also were found waiting at the hospital doors. A room was set apart for them in which they could wait without fear of being molested; a middle-aged woman, a Cabuli, acted as matron, and re-assured them, when their fears overcame their desire to be made whole.

By the 11th of December the daily attendance had risen to 118, of whom fully two-thirds were women, and Dr. Owen's services

The British Hospital in Cabul.

299 were sought after by well-to-do citizens, in whose zenanas were sick wives or favourite concubines pining under mysterious ailments. Just when attendances were daily growing more numerous, came the rush of Mahomed Jan's host upon Cabul. The city was occupied, and in the stupid madness which prompted the ghazis to destroy all marks of our occupation, the dispensary was looted and partly wrecked. Fortunately, the few cases of instruments, which Dr. Owen had to leave behind, were taken away by one of the attendants and buried in a neighbouring house. But the bottles of medicines still on the shelves were broken; chairs, tables, and partitions smashed to pieces; and even doors and windows pulled out. This was in the outer courtyard of the late Kotwal's house; the rooms grouped about the inner yard were not much interfered with, as they bore but few signs of the stranger's hand. When, on Christmas Day, Dr. Owen once more visited the place, nothing but empty rooms greeted him, and these so filthy, that they could scarcely be entered. However, those in the outer courtyard were soon cleaned, and on the following morning patients were again found waiting at the doors. eighteen on that particular day; but as peaceful assured, the list soon grew to its old proportions; and yesterday, when I visited the hospital, there were 207 patients on the books. The disease most prevalent in Cabul is ophthalmia, caused by dirt and exposure; while cataract and other serious affections of the eye are also only too common. The type is very much the same as that found in Egypt; and partial, or complete, blindness from neglect follows almost as a matter of course. Luckily for the Cabulis, Dr. Owen is a skilled oculist, and already his operations are bruited about the city as marvels that cannot be easily understood by the people.

There were only times were more

My visit yesterday was made with Dr. Owen a little before noon; a sharp walk from cantonments, past the ruins of the forts of Mahomed Sharif and Mahomed Khan and over the Cabul river, bringing us in a quarter of an hour to the western skirts of the city, not far from the Bala Hissar. Through a narrow, winding lane, so filthy and muddy that a Cologne slum could not compare with it, and then into the Char Chowk Bazaar, just where it tapers off towards the Peshawur Gate: along this for a few

yards, and over a doorway on the right, a wooden board catches the eye, with the words "Charitable Dispensary," painted upon it, with the Persian translation below. As we passed through the doorway into an open courtyard, where thirty or forty wretched poshteen-clad men were squatting under a rude verandah, a Ghoorka guard of four men stood to attention on the sunny side of the yard. The squatting figures rose up and made their salaam abjectly, as poverty ever does; they were the poorest of the poor -Hazara coolies, Mahomedan beggars, lepers, the blind, the halt, the maimed-all whom wretchedness and disease have cast out as a hideous fringe upon healthful life. Apart from the general crowd were solitary men, whose appearance showed them to belong to the shopkeeping class-an influential section in the busy life. of Cabul. Two or three women, veiled from head to foot, resembling nothing so much as Sisters of Charity, followed us in, and, with faces carefully covered by their yashmaks, passed quickly into a closed room, the door of which opening for an instant showed other white-robed figures grouped together. There are three rooms on the right of the courtyard-a small one, in which stores are kept and an attendant lives; a second, which serves as dispensary, surgery, and consulting-room; and a third, the zenana, the room in which the women wait in quiet seclusion. Around the inner yard, which is reached by an open passage, are the wards proper of the hospital, wherein surgical cases, or those involving nursing and supervision, are treated. The rooms are warm and comfortable, and the terraced roof is well adapted for convalescent patients, who can "sun" themselves in comfort, that process which does so much to restore strength after a weary illness. A room on the roof is being fitted up for operations, as it is light and airy, and the operator will not be liable to be disturbed by the curious crowd which often collects now in the outer courtyard. Among the in-patients the most noticeable was a man suffering from severe bullet-wound in the leg. He had been shot by us during the investment of Sherpur, and now, to his surprise, found himself being treated kindly, and cured of a wound that, if untended, would have caused his death. He seemed very grateful for the attention paid to him: to be given comfortable quarters, food, and a skilful surgeon by the Sircar against whom he had