The second catastrophe occurred to an officer of her Majesty's 17th Regiment, who with a Serjeant and twelve men was sent to recover a gun which had stuck in the sand. The difficulty was greater than had been anticipated, and they were detained till mid-day, by which time the officer and eight men had fallen victims to the sun, and died raving mad. The serjeant and four men returned, debilitated for life, to report the success of the expedition.
The forces gradually closed to the front on receiving the report of the reconnoitring party.
Several marauding Beloochees, who had been hovering near us, committed a most impudent depredation here on some camels, which they carried off in broad daylight. General Thackwell, who was one of the sufferers, ordered a squadron in pursuit. Away we went, in full cry, at a hand-gallop, across some ten miles of country, mostly rocky, and intersected by numerous ravines; here and there, the steep and dangerous chasms were so artfully hid that it required a keen eye to avoid them. At length, we came to a halt, no Beloochees in sight, and our list of casualties great: three horses lame, and ten horses and men missing, who had been deposited in the cavities by the way. We now scoured the country in every direction, but found no suspicious characters, except in a small village, where the inhabitants forthwith protested vehemently that they were exceedingly honest people, which, of course, led us to suppose the contrary. It was now getting dark; and having no further evidence against the villagers beyond their own professions, we abandoned the pursuit, and reached camp soon after nightfall.
We resumed our march towards the mountains through a better country; water was abundant, and occasionally a little grass was procurable for the horses, who were beginning to look much jaded.
On the morning of the 10th of March, we reached Dadur, which is close to the foot of a continuous chain of barren, rocky hills, and four miles from the gorge of the Bolan Pass. At this place, hopes were entertained that an abundance of supplies would be awaiting. Alas! there were none—the commissariat were informed that the force had not been expected so soon, (a fortunate excuse,) and that consequently little was to be procured.
The melancholy truth transpired: there was absolutely not one day's provision for the army, and we were led to infer a similar fate at the places upon which we were about to march. The consequence was, an immediate reduction to half rations for man and beast; and Sir Willoughby saw that he had now no alternative but to push on through the mountain-pass, and take the chance of what might be found on the other side.
Major Cureton, of the 16th Lancers, who had been detached with a squadron of native cavalry, and a wing of a sepoy regiment of infantry, reported that no enemy was to be seen, but that forage was nearly equally scarce the first three marches in the Pass. The Bengal column being assembled at Dadur, orders were issued to advance, the cavalry-brigade being now preceded by the first brigade of infantry under Colonel Sale.
At daybreak, we reached the gorge of the Pass, which is wide enough to admit a regiment of cavalry in line. The road is level, but rocky; and through the centre runs a clear stream, with an abundance of long, coarse grass, nearly resembling dried flags, on its banks. The hills, without a sign of vegetation on them, rise abruptly on each side, at first, five or six hundred feet, but gradually increase in elevation as you advance. Our first day's march continued to follow the course of the mountain stream, on whose banks we encamped, surrounded by desolate and rocky hills. The camels had no food but the reedy grass, which contained little nutriment; but for our horses we had provided better, by carrying on from Dadur two days' supply of green forage. In the night, an alarm was given that the Beloochees had come down from the hills, and carried off some camels. As I happened to be on picket, a detail of my party went in pursuit, but no vestige of the robbers was found, and the clouds, which had long been lowering, now gave us such a sprinkling, that it was impossible to see twenty yards off, so the pursuit was abandoned.
In consequence of the tents being saturated with rain in the night, our march was deferred till mid-day, to give them a chance of being dried, for a wet tent and a bad road soon render camels unserviceable. We continued to march, henceforth, at mid-day, the weather being cool; and although a strong guard accompanied the baggage, the Beloochees managed to pounce upon some daily, plundering the camels and murdering our camp-followers. The infantry had frequent skirmishes with these marauders, but rarely succeeded in capturing any, so nimbly did the scoundrels mount the craggy sides of the mountains with their plunder and conceal themselves in ravines and caverns, which could only be approached at great disadvantage by the assailants.