To Herat and Cabul: A Story of the First Afghan War

by G. A. Henty

On the 20th of September, 1837, a lad was standing before Mr. M'Neill, the British minister at the Persian court. Both looked grave, for the interview was an important one. The former felt that it was the turning-point of his life, the opening of a fresh career, the introduction to a service in which he might gain honourable distinction and credit. To the British minister it was of scarcely less importance, for the interests of Great Britain were gravely involved in the success of the mission that he was now entrusting to this young clerk in the employment of the embassy. It was nothing less than thwarting the designs of Persia, aided and instigated by Russia, to capture Herat and to conquer at least the western portion of Afghanistan, the alliance of the princes of Candahar having already been secured.

Angus Campbell was now about sixteen years old. His father was a trader, who had for twelve years been settled in Tabriz, carrying on business on his own account in some branches of trade, and as agent for a Scotch firm in others. The boy had been left with some relations in Scotland until he was twelve years old, when his parents had paid a short visit to their friends in Scotland, and had brought him back with them. The change of life was not an agreeable one to him. In the eight years that had elapsed since he had last seen his parents, he had, of course, almost forgotten them, and it would be some time before any real affection for them would spring up. It was the companionship of his school-fellows that he missed rather than that of his aunt, a strict woman, who made no allowance whatever for a boy's restlessness and love of fun, and who was continually shocked by the complaints made by members of her chapel as to the conduct of the boys at Dr. Murray's.

It was the principal school in the little town. The teaching was good, the application of the rod frequent, but neither teaching nor thrashing availed to soften the manners of the healthy and somewhat riotous lads, who once out of school threw themselves with all their hearts into their favourite diversions, among which the most conspicuous were fishing in forbidden parts of the river, bird-nesting in woods which were kept strictly private and guarded by keepers, playing hare-and-hounds across the fields of the crustiest of farmers, and above all engaging in desperate battles with the boys of other schools. In all these pastimes Angus Campbell took as large a share as his age entitled him to, and the state of his clothes and his face when he returned home was a source of continual amazement and irritation to his aunt.

She had even endeavoured to arrange for a deputation to wait upon Dr. Murray with a list of grievances suffered by the townspeople, such as broken windows, the yells and shouts of conflict, and the destruction of the boys' garments caused by the various fights, and to propose that the hours of play should be shortened, and that some sort of supervision should be exercised at all times over the boys. However, although there were many who agreed with her that the present state of things was disgraceful, nothing came of the movement; for the fathers, remembering their own boyhood, were to a man against the idea.

"We did just the same in our young days," they said, "and are none the worse for it now. Lads cannot be like lassies, and we don't want them to be even if they could; if you were to speak to the doctor, he would just laugh in your faces, and would tell you that he kept a school for boys and not for girls. If you have complaints to make against any of his scholars, make them, and he will punish the lads as they deserve. His boys are no worse than others, and he does not wish to see them better. If they do some mischief occasionally, it is because they are in good health and in good spirits, and a lad of that kind is far more likely to turn out well than one who spends all his spare time in poring over his books."

As the doctor's opinions on these subjects were known to all the town, Miss Campbell's proposal came to nothing. She would herself have gone to him to complain of the doings of her nephew, but there was a strong feeling in the town that while all things connected with the school were under the doctor's charge, parents should take other matters into their own hands, and maintain discipline by the use of the tawse in their own dwellings, and that they had no right to trouble Dr. Murray about private delinquencies.

He had, indeed, sufficient on his hands, for although no actual supervision was maintained when the lads were once dismissed from school, there were bounds set beyond which they were not allowed to go, and when they were caught upon any of their frequent forays beyond these limits, he had to adjudicate and punish the offenders. But it was not often that this happened; for while the boys considered it not only justifiable but meritorious to break bounds, they looked upon anyone caught in the act of showing a want of craft and of judgment, and so, having good legs and lungs, they were generally able to outdistance their pursuers.

Thus, then, when his parents returned to Scotland they found Angus a healthy, active, and high-spirited boy, somewhat rough in manners, but straightforward and honourable, for it was a tradition in the school that no boy should ever try to screen himself by a lie. When questioned by his father, he acknowledged that he would like to stay at school for a few years longer.

"And I should like you to do so too, Angus; but it is a long, long journey, and a difficult one, from Tabriz to Scotland, and it may be many years before I return home again. It is a journey that it is impossible for a boy to make alone. But this is not the only reason why I wish to take you back. I want to train you to help me in my business, and until you speak Persian fluently you will be of no use whatever to me. At your age you will pick it up rapidly, far more rapidly than you could if you did not begin till you were seventeen or eighteen. We will generally speak to you in Persian, and you will have many opportunities for practising it. In two years you ought to speak it like a native. Arabic will also be very useful to you. I have constant communications with India, with Turkey, and with Herat. I buy goods from all these countries; and sell Persian products to them. In Afghanistan, indeed, Persian is spoken generally by the trading and upper classes; but Arabic is essential to trade with Constantinople and Smyrna, with Bokhara and the Turkomans; and it is our chief medium of communication with India traders, who, although speaking several distinct languages, all have more or less knowledge of Arabic. It has been a great privation to your mother and myself to be so many years without you. We have no other children, and it would be a great joy and comfort to our lives, as well as a great assistance to me in my business, to have you with me."

"I understand, Father," the boy said; "I did not think of these things before. I am sure I should be very glad to be able to help you, and I won't say another word about being sorry to leave all my friends."