Book Description

The Treaty of Gundamak had for its chief object the direct representation of the British Government at the Court of the Amir Yakub Khan, and, in pursuance of the terms of the Treaty, Sir Louis Cavagnari, K.C.B., C.S.I., was received at Cabul, as Resident, on July 24th, 1879. Mr. William Jenkyns, of the Indian Civil Service, accompanied him as secretary to the Mission. An escort of twenty-five sowars and fifty sepoys of the Guides’ Corps was the only means of protection at the Embassy’s command, implicit faith being placed in the Amir’s promise to guard the lives of his guests. Lieutenant Hamilton was in command of the escort, and Dr. Kelly, surgeon of the Guides, was the medical officer attached to the Mission. Including servants and followers, there were in all some 200 souls gathered in the Residency in the Bala Hissar from July 24th until the outbreak of the Herat regiments on the morning of September 3rd. It would be out of place to describe at length the course of events which culminated in the Massacre, but from the tone of Sir Louis Cavagnari’s letters there can be no doubt the Amir was never anxious to carry out to the strict letter the terms of the Gundamak Treaty. Taking the official diary sent weekly from Cabul to the Indian Government, it appears that every outward honour was paid to the Embassy upon its arrival, but that Yakub Khan was so suspicious of his Ministers and Nobles, that he told off men to watch the Residency. These spies furnished the names of all who visited Cavagnari without the Amir’s knowledge. Then came rumours of petty chiefs having been punished for their friendship to the British during the late campaign, although one of the main points of the Treaty was directed against this very contingency. The Amir always avoided reference to this subject, and as Sir Louis Cavagnari could not obtain direct evidence of the amnesty clauses being departed from, no redress could be obtained. Apart from palace intrigues, which are always rife in Cabul, there seemed no direct element of discord at work in the capital until the troops from Herat reached Sherpur Cantonment on August 5th. These regiments had not shared in the humiliation of the defeats suffered by the Cabul soldiery at Ali Musjid and the Peiwar Kotal; they taunted their comrades in arms with cowardice, and boasted of their own prowess; and their turbulence soon assumed a dangerous form. A ressaldar-major of one of our cavalry regiments, Nakshband Khan, an old and tried soldier, was spending his furlough at his village of Aoshahr, two miles from Cabul, and he seems first to have caught the alarm. When the Herat regiments marched, or rather swaggered, through the streets of Cabul, with bands playing, many of the soldiers abused the Kafir elchi (ambassador) by name, calling out to the populace, “Why has he come here?” and showing too clearly that their passions were dangerously excited. Nakshband Khan learned from a fellow-countryman in the ranks that the soldiers had been ordered so to shout in the streets. Full of this news, he went to our Envoy and warned him of the coming storm. Sir Louis Cavagnari was a man notorious for his disregard of personal danger: he was brave to a fault, and this turbulence among the Afghan soldiery scarcely shook his composure. “Never fear,” was the answer to the Ressaldar; “keep up your heart, dogs that bark don’t bite!” “But these dogs do bite; there is real danger,” urged Nakshband Khan. The reply was characteristic of the man: he had taken up his post and nothing could break down his determination to remain at all hazards; he quietly said, “They can only kill the three or four of us here, and our death will be avenged.”