The Relief of Chitral

by G. J. Younghusband; Sir Francis Edward Younghusband

The prisoners were naturally an object of great curiosity to the people, and crowds gathered to see them. These people specially delighted to see the officers eat with knife and fork, and laughed at their attempts to eat with their fingers. This curiosity on the part of the populace the British officers found to be somewhat annoying, and the guard soon discovering that they did not like visitors at meal times, kept them off while the officers were eating; but at other times the prisoners received the public, and sat to be inspected whilst conversing with the people through interpreters. Umra Khan himself, as has been said, always treated his captives with civility, and was much interested in talking with them, and as long as he was with them and had leisure sent for them every day. He twice took them out hawking, and asked them to walk alongside him. The officers were not allowed to communicate with any one, except through the chief, nor were they allowed any writing materials, but they had obtained some paper and a pencil in Chitral and managed to keep a short diary of each day hid in their clothes. They were allowed to purchase materials with which to make clothes for themselves and their sepoys, and the traders gave them credit on their written acknowledgment.

Marching towards Jandul, the party on the 28th of March reached the Lowarai Pass, 10,000 feet in height, and now covered deep in snow. Leaving Ashreth, the last Chitrali village on the north side of the Pass, they ascended the deep narrow rocky valley to the Pass. At four miles from the summit they had to send back their ponies as the snow was now too soft to allow of their being taken over. They then had a very stiff pull up on foot, and on the top were caught in a violent storm of hail and snow. The wind was bitterly cold, and they were almost blinded by the driven snow. On the other side one of their sepoys complained of pain in the stomach, and he was left behind with another sepoy to look after him, but he died at night. Soon after dark the officers reached Dir, having marched twenty-four miles and crossed a difficult pass. Here at Dir, however, they were given better quarters and better food. On the 30th of March they marched to Barwa, Umra Khan's chief fort, crossing the Jhanbatai Pass, 7,000 feet high, from which they could obtain a view over the Pathan chief's own native valley. On the summit of the Pass, Umra Khan seated the British officers beside him, and, giving them food and sweetmeats, asked them how they liked his country. For a long time he sat there with the officers at his side gazing over his native valley stretched out at his feet, and then proceeding down the hill-side he was met by crowds of men on horseback and on foot as he marched into Barwa.

The Lowarai Pass.

The officers remained here about a fortnight; but on the 1st of April the Mussulman sepoys were told that they could consider themselves at liberty, and the guard over them was removed. A native officer accordingly left and proceeded to Peshawur, where he brought the news of the disaster to his party.

News now began to come in of the fighting between General Low's force and the Pathan tribes, and great excitement prevailed. Numbers of men began clearing out, taking all their goods with them to hide on the hill-sides. It is a remarkable point that as the panic increased, the officers received greater attention, and at the approach of our troops they were supplied with two fowls, flour, rice, butter and milk daily. On the 12th of April both of the officers were taken to Munda, Umra Khan's strongest fort. There they met a native political officer who had been sent by the British authorities to treat with Umra Khan. A long conversation took place between Umra Khan and the native official, the upshot of which was that Lieutenant Edwardes was made the bearer of two letters to the British General, and given his release. Umra Khan explained to him his views at great length, and under an escort he left at midnight. Taking a circuitous route to avoid a collection of ruffians in the valley, he arrived at 10 a.m. at Sadoo, the head-quarters of the British forces now advancing to the relief of Chitral. Umra Khan hoped by delivering up the British officer to stave off the punishment which the British forces were now at hand to inflict upon him. But General Low did not stay his advance for a moment. He pushed steadily on towards Umra Khan's stronghold at Munda, and on April the 16th Umra Khan played his second card, and released Lieutenant Fowler. But still General Low pressed on as will presently be described.

Both officers had now unexpectedly obtained their release. They had suffered the greatest hardships, and lived in daily peril of their lives, but they spoke with something like enthusiasm of the good treatment they had received at Umra Khan's hands. It was sometimes no easy matter for that chief to keep off those who had wished to injure the British officers; and on one occasion after Lieutenant Edwardes had left, Fowler had had an anxious time owing to the presence of many fanatics from outside striving to gain an entrance into the fort. There had nearly been a pitched fight between Umra Khan's men and these wild ruffians, and a few days afterwards when I stood with him in Umra Khan's fort, Lieutenant Fowler, standing in the doorway of the house he had occupied as a prisoner only three days before, had shown me the spot where these fanatics came clamouring round his guard, and trying to obtain access to him. But Umra Khan succeeded in protecting him throughout. He gave back to Lieutenant Edwardes his own sword which had been seized at Reshun, and which Umra Khan had received as a present from Chitral; and he promised to obtain Lieutenant Fowler's also, if it could be found. "We both consider," say the British officers, at the close of their report, "that Umra Khan treated us very well indeed, and that he never intended to be the direct cause of injury to us under any circumstance."

So ended the wonderful adventures of these two British subalterns. When they were holding out at Reshun, and making their last stand in a mere village house against overwhelming numbers of the enemy; and again, when they were treacherously captured by a deceitful foe; and lastly, when they were in the hands of men in the fever-heat of rebellion against the British, no one would have supposed that they could ever have escaped alive. But they had survived every peril, and were now once more in safety among their fellow-countrymen.

How General Low advanced to the Relief has now to be related.