General Daoud Shah. 353 to have been in a rabid state of parricide or fratricide; and in the month of Ramzan A.H. 1277 Hamid Khan killed Niamatullah Khan. The second son of Abdul Aziz, the present Asmatullah Khan, then became head of the Ghilzais, and still remains so. During the Amir Shere Ali's reign he was a member of the Council of State. Asmatullah Khan's character is thus curtly summed up :-" He is said to be dull, or slow of understanding, and wanting in pluck; he owes his influence more to his birth than to his capacity." The half-hearted way in which he attacked Jugdulluck a few weeks ago, and his inability to keep his force together, prove that he lacks courage and administrative power, and now that one of our flying columns has marched unopposed through the Lughman Valley, his dignity in the eyes of his followers must have greatly diminished. My last biographical sketch is of General Daoud Shah, late Commander-in-Chief of the Afghan army, who is now a prisoner in India. His father, Mahomed Shah, was of the Lakhan Khel, a branch of the Andar tribe of Sohak Ghilzais (south of Ghazni). Like Nimrod, he was a great shikari; but not content with the killing of beasts, he quarrelled with his neighbours most persistently, and was never happy unless engaged in tribal warfare. He lived in the village of Mandi Chinar, in the Safi district of Tagao; and upon the British invasion of 1839 he eagerly took up arms against the Kafirs. His career was ended in a fight before Charikar, in which our troops were successful in beating the tribesmen. His son, Daoud Shah, had his father's warlike instinct, and as a young man took service in the army of the Dost. He was Akhbar Khan's orderly officer, and gained much experience under that General. His promotion was very slow, until Shere Ali Khan made him captain for services rendered at the battle of Kajbaz, in which Sirdar Mahomed Ali Khan, eldest son of Shere Ali, was killed. Daoud Shah showed great bravery during the campaign in Khost, and was raised to the rank of General. He it was who won the battle of Zana Khan, in which Shere Ali defeated Azim Khan and Abdur Rahman Khan. His fame as a General was now bruited all over Afghanistan, and his next campaign added to his glory, as, in conjunction with Mahomed Alam Khan, he defeated Abdur Rahman's forces in Turkistan, and settled the country in A A Shere Ali's name. Having quarrelled with Mahomed Alam, he was recalled to Cabul and imprisoned by Shere Ali. The latter could not afford to alienate so able a General, and Daoud Shah was soon released, but was given no employment. When Yakub Khan rebelled against his father, Daoud Shah officiated as Commander-in-Chief, General Faramurz Khan, commanding the Amir's armies in the field, having been killed by Aslam Khan, son of the Dost. Upon the new settlement of Turkistan, Daoud Shah accompained Yakub Khan to Cabul, and reverted again to the rank of General. Upon Yakub Khan's second rebellion, an army was again sent to Herat, in which Daoud Shah was given a command; but Shere Ali, finding that he had no able General at Cabul, recalled him and entrusted to him the management of all army affairs in the capital. When the Amir fled to Turkistan, after the capture of Ali Musjid and the Peiwar Kotal, Daoud Shah was left at Cabul with Yakub Khan, and he accompanied the new Amir to Gundamak. He was at the same time made Commanderin-Chief, and this office he held until the massacre of our Envoy and Yakub's flight to the British camp at Kushi. Of Daoud Shah's conduct during the attack upon the Residency nothing very exact is known. He was said to have tried, with 200 or 300 men, to check the mutineers. He certainly rode into the crowd with half a dozen attendants; but it was then too late, and he was pulled off his horse and beaten by the mutinous soldiery. He probably dared to take no action without the Amir's orders; and these, unfortunately, were not forthcoming. Daoud Shah favourably impressed most of us with whom he came into contact, his striking figure and open manner being very different from the cringing obeisance of the Barakzai sirdars. During the siege it was deemed inadvisable that he should be at liberty in Sherpur ; and he was, accordingly, placed under arrest. After such treatment it was, of course, imperative that he should be deported to India, as, if at first inclined to be faithful to the British, his imprisonment must have turned him against us. He was undoubtedly the ablest General in the Afghan army, and his popularity among the soldiers would always have ensured many thousands of men answering to his call to arms. He is between forty and fifty years of age, and is still an active, intelligent soldier. Re-Arrangement of Commands. 355 CHAPTER XXV. Changes in the Northern Afghanistan Force-Completion of the Chain of Forts about Cabul-Composition of the Force on March 22nd-Arrival of Mr. Lepel Griffin at Sherpur-Declaration of the Government Policy-Candahar and Herat to be separated from Cabul-Discontent among the Barakzai Sirdars-The Future of Herat -Advantages of the Khyber Route-Arguments in favour of the Annexation of the Jellalabad Valley-The Mustaufi's Mission to the Ghazni Malcontents-His Partial Success-Assembly of the Chiefs at Maidan-The Durbar in Sherpur on April 13th-Speeches by Sir Frederick Roberts and Mr. Lepel Griffin-The Policy of the Government explained-Annexation deprecated-Approval of the Policy in Camp The Exigency of Party Politics in England-Abdur Rahman's Movements at Kunduz. WITH the near approach of spring there was a recasting of the commands between Cabul and Peshawur, the following being the order of the Commander-in-Chief directing the changes: 1. The Second Division of the Cabul Field Force, hitherto under the command of Major-General Bright, C. B., will be broken up. 2. The Reserve Division, under Major-General Ross, C. B., will also be broken up, and absorbed into the Line of Communications. 3. The Force in Cabul, under Lieutenant-General Sir F. Roberts, will be divided into two divisions. 1st Division under Sir F. Roberts's immediate command, and the 2nd Division under Major General Ross, C. B. 4. Major-General Bright, C.B., is appointed Inspector-General of the Line of communications, and will command all troops thereon stationery, in movable columns, or passing along the line. Major-General Bright will report direct to Army HeadQuarters. 5. The Peshawur District will be temporarily commanded by Brigadier-General Hankin, 4th Bengal Cavalry, hitherto in command of the Cavalry Brigade Reserve Division. 6. The line of communications will be divided into three sections: 1st.- From Jumrood to Busawul inclusive, under Brigadier-General Gib. 3rd. From Sufed Sang to Butkhak inclusive, under Brigadier-General Hill. Major Creagh, Assistant Quartermaster-General; Lieutenant Maisey, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General. 8. The Divisional Staff under Major-General Ross, C. B., will consist of :— Major Boyes, Assistant Adjutant-General; Captain the Honourable C. Dutton, Assistant Quartermaster-General; and a Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General, to be detailed by Lieutenant-General Sir F. Roberts. 9. Colonel Evans, Commanding Royal Artillery on Line of communications, will proceed with the Staff to Cabul as commanding Royal Artillery, 2nd Division. Lieutenant-Colonel Purvis, Royal Artillery, taking up the duties of Commanding Royal Artillery, under Major-General Bright. Lieutenant-Colonel Limond will proceed to Cabul as Commanding Royal Engineers, 2nd Division, and Major Hill will assume the duties of Commanding Royal Engineer to Major-General Bright. 10. Brigadier-General Roberts (5th Fusiliers) will proceed to Cabul to command a brigade in the 2nd Division. 11. Brigadier-General Arbuthnot, C.B., will command the movable columns at Jellalabad and Sufed Sang. 12. The Force under Sir F. Roberts in Cabul will be styled the Cabul Field Force, and the Force under Major-General Bright will be styled the Khyber Line Force. These arrangements were all carried out; and the following extracts from letters written in March will indicate what was occurring in and about Cabul: SHERPUR, March 3rd, 1880. Brigadier-General Dunham Massy left for Peshawur a few days ago, where he will meet the Commander-in-Chief, and offer certain explanations of his course of action on December 11th, which, it is not too much to say, may modify the harsh step of recalling him from Cabul. The greatest sympathy is felt for General Massy in the force here; and the decision to be given on what is purely a question for military critics will be anxiously looked for.* Brigadier-General Hugh Gough has taken over charge of the Cavalry Brigade, his duties as Road Commandant being performed by Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Heathcote. There is no relaxation of the preparations for defending Sherpur and Cabul against all-comers. Certainly there is not now a weak point in the cantonment: the gap at the north-west corner, defended during the siege by a trench and a parapet made out of Cabuli gun-wheels, has now been closed by a wall six feet high on * I have not gone at length into the question of General Massy's recall, as there were too many points involved for the case to be treated in a work of this kind, which is only a diary of the war. I may state, however, that General Massy was given a brigade command in India, which he still retains. Sherpur made Impregnable. 357 the inner side of the old barrier; the bastion at the corner, partially destroyed when the mutinous regiments blew up their magazine on October 7th, has been put in thorough order; a zigzag wall, with traverses, is also being built up on the western slope of the Bemaru hills; and, in addition to the block-house on the top, a platform has been made for guns, guarded by a semicircular wall, which will eventually be joined to the zig-zag running up the hillside. Looking at these new defences, and also at the block-houses upon the Asmai and Sherderwaza Heights-to say nothing of the strong fort upon Siah Sung-one is tempted to ask, "What will be the fate of all these works when we retire?" We have made Sherpur practically impregnable now against any attack unsupported by heavy guns: shall we leave it so, or shall we order up a few tons of gun-cotton from an Indian arsenal, and have everything in readiness to blow its walls down when it has to be abandoned? Perhaps, as we shall inevitably be forced to annex Cabul in a few years, we may leave the cantonment intact, though it would be cruelty to expect our men to capture it, say in 1883, unless it had been well-pounded by a battery of 40-pounders from Siah Sung. But, for all outsiders may know, there may be a plan lying cut and dry in some secret drawer of our Chief Engineer's despatch-box, in which the fate of Sherpur and its surroundings has been once for all decided. Colonel Perkins has certainly been indefatigable in creating new defences; perhaps he may show equal energy in destroying the work of his own hand when the time comes. * March 21st. The garrison of Cabul has been largely reinforced, and we have at last nearly 12,000 troops here. The 45th Sikhs and the 27th Punjabees, who marched in from Butkhak on Friday, are now encamped on the Siah Sung Ridge, and are holding the new fort built thereon. The 45th Sikhs have, for the time being, been attached to General Macpherson's Brigade, and the 27th Punjab Infantry to General Charles Gough's. The various forts we have built upon Asmai and Sherderwaza Heights have had their At Abdur Rahman's request all the forts, &c., were left intact when Sir Donald Stewart left Cabul in August, |