When we bivouacked at sunset, the agreeable intelligence was made known of no water having yet been discovered, and of course no food was procurable, the commissariat stores being far behind. The soldiers stood the want of food for twenty-four hours of hard labour without a murmur; but when they heard no water was procurable, they gave vent to many a hearty malediction on these inhospitable regions. Several started off to the hills with waterskins on their backs, and returned after a long search, the greater part unsuccessful, but some few with a little filthy mud and water, which was swallowed with an avidity that extreme thirst only could produce.
As very few tents had made their appearance, and the night was wearing apace, we laid ourselves on the least rocky piece of ground that we could select in the dark, and rested till three in the morning, when the musical invitation of the trumpet called us again to the saddle, and, after a march of eighteen miles across the desert plain, and under a sun which, in these lower regions, did not spare us, we came at length to a small pond of dirty water, where we halted.
I threw myself down beside this inestimable puddle completely exhausted; and my horse having taken a drink, which threatened rivalry with Munchausen's notorious steed, followed my example; but our repose was soon cruelly interrupted by a requisition for our services on outlying picket, some two miles in advance. We both arose, stretching and shaking ourselves into consciousness; my charger certainly yawned widest, although I explained to him how much he had the best of it, as no dread of a court-martial need await him for sleeping on his post.
My tents and servants did not arrive till late next evening, having been absent three days without leave, and leaving me to luxuriate during that time in the same clothing, and on a loaf of tolerably hard and stale ammunition bread, about the weight, size, and consistency, of a twelve-pound shot.
We had been compelled to halt here, to enable the rear-guard to come up, who had been frequently fired on by the Kaukers; but no casualties occurred, which does not say much for our enemies as marksmen, though the long rifle, termed a "jezzail," which they use with a forked rest, carries a great distance, and with tolerable accuracy, when properly handled.
Some camels and servants belonging to the rear-brigades were shot in the transit of the Kojuck Pass, and many of the officers' and soldiers' tents and baggage were plundered; but these unaccountable mountain warriors almost invariably allowed the cavalry to pass unscathed through defiles, where they would have been almost helpless if attacked.
Amongst other troubles and privations, we had now daily to reckon the badness and scarcity of water. The wells being dug in ground whose surface was white with saltpetre,[26] we found the water partook so strongly of this mineral, that it was not only nauseous to the taste, but affected man and beast with a diarrhœa, which, combined with the fatigues and exposure to which all had been subjected, reduced the greater part to a debilitated condition.
As we had descended a good deal since leaving Quetta, the heat of the sun daily increased; and although we marched every morning long before daybreak, the roads were so bad and our cattle so weak from want of sustenance, that we had generally to pass the noon-day unsheltered.
On the 23rd of April, we had, according to the most prevalent conjectures, arrived within about fifty miles of Kandahar, and met no enemy. Having marched about twelve miles in the morning, we reached our appointed ground for halting about nine A.M., when some assistants, in the quartermaster-general's department, reported to the brigadier of the cavalry that the water in camp[27] would barely suffice for a brigade of infantry. We were accordingly ordered to remount, and proceed towards a river, which was supposed to be some ten miles' distant. Few who were present will ever forget that dreadful march. The reflection of the sun from the burning dust and barren hills was so dazzling, that many who underwent it have never recovered their strength of sight. We had marched about ten miles, when the halt was sounded. It was mid-day; about twenty men of the leading regiment held together, the remainder of the cavalry-brigade were straggling over four or five miles of country in the rear; some were urging their jaded beasts with the spur, some leading them on foot, and others driving their chargers before them at the point of the lance or sword. But far the hottest thing I beheld that day, was the talented Colonel Ninny, purple with heat and anger, and seeking an object to vent it upon.
"Where the devil is your squadron, sir?" was demanded, in a voice of thunder, of a ponderous captain, with a face like a salamander, and a corporation like a hogshead.