From the Indus to the Tigris

by H. W. Bellew

The depth of the well is about 130 feet, and its diameter 18 feet. We found the bottom dry, and covered with a thick layer of débris, sticks, and rubbish. Some labourers were set to work to clear this away; but as at a depth of four feet there was still only débris, the work was discontinued, and we mounted up to the open air again. The well was evidently fed from the river by some subterranean channel, and its waters rose and fell with that of its stream, as was indicated by the different appearance of the bricks in the lowest part of its shaft.

The chambers opening on the well were no doubt used as a cool retreat in the hot weather; and that the well was used for the supply of the citadel is evidenced by the rope-marks worn into the bricks on the lower edge of the openings.

The rest of the fort interior extends away to the northward. Its area is covered with bricks and pottery, but shows no traces of buildings. It is of the same width as the citadel divisions, but six or seven times more in length. The citadel rises out of the river bed; but the west face of the whole fort is separated from the river, which here makes a bend to the west, by an intervening strip of land. The whole fortification is surrounded by a wide ditch and covered way. There is a gateway in the east face, just beyond the interior ditch, separating the citadel from the rest of the fort, and there is another gate opposite to it, fronting the river. The citadel was entered by a small gate in the centre of its southern face. Each gateway is protected by outflanking bastions. Altogether, the place appears to have been a very strong and important frontier fortress, and commanded the approach from Sistan by Garmsel towards Kandahar.

The General got a party of workmen together, and made some small excavations in different parts of the citadel; but our stay was too short to admit of any extensive exploration of this kind. Several bits of glass and china of superior manufacture were turned up, and two or three “fire altar” Sassanian coins were also found. The china was of two different kinds: one, the common material with the familiar blue designs; the other a coarse-grained material, coated with a glazed crust of mother-of-pearl appearance, and pale lilac hue. Some fragments of glass goblets and bowls were found, and attracted our attention as being far superior to any manufacture of the kind now to be found in this or the adjacent countries, or India itself. One in particular I observed formed part of a large bowl: the glass was fine, clear, and thin, and ribbed with bands of a rich chocolate-brown colour.

Búst or Bost is the site of a very ancient city. Malcolm, in his “History of Persia,” says it is identical with the ancient Abeste; and he states that in A.D. 977, when Sebuktaghín was at Ghazni, it was in the possession of one Tegha, who being expelled, applied to Sebuktaghín for aid, and was by him reinstated, on condition of paying tribute. Tegha failed to do so, and was consequently suddenly attacked by Sebuktaghín, the perfidious Tegha effecting his escape. This Sebuktaghín was a ghulám, or body-soldier of the refractory Bukhára noble Abustakín, who settled and founded Ghazni. At this period the Indian prince Jaipál was King of Kabul, and Kulif, the Sámání, was Prince of Sistan.

Erskine, in his “Life of the Emperor Babur,” mentions that Búst was besieged, A.D. 1542, by the Emperor Humáyún, on his advance against Kandahar, with a Persian army, and the fort surrendered to him. Previous to this, in A.D. 1498, the same author states, the fort of Búst was captured by Sultán Husen Mirzá, Báikara, when he set out from Herat, his capital, against his rebel son, Khusran, at Kandahar. He was obliged, however, to retire from Kandahar, and to give up this fort; but he found in it supplies sufficient to provision his whole army, and enable them to retrace their steps comfortably.

Búst was finally dismantled and destroyed in A.D. 1738 by Nadír Sháh, when he advanced against Kandahar on his way to India. In all these sieges, the fort alone, it appears, was occupied as a strategetical position; the city and suburbs had remained a mass of ruins, in much the same state as they are now, since the desolating invasion of Changhiz in A.D. 1222.

In the present century, Kuhudil Khán, having annexed Garmsel to his principality of Kandahar in 1845, had some intention of restoring the fort of Búst, and had commenced the repair of its walls. But the jealousy of Persia, and other troubles nearer home, put a stop to the work; and he died in 1855, before he could carry out his original design. The site is well placed to command the approach through Garmsel, and is sufficiently near to afford efficient support to Girishk, twenty miles higher up the river on the opposite bank.

Our camp here was pitched right on the river bank, immediately to the south of the citadel. The channel is from 250 to 300 yards wide, between straight banks about twenty feet high; but the stream at this season is only about eighty or ninety yards wide, on a firm pebbly bed. It was forded in several places opposite our camp by horsemen going across in search of fodder. The water reached the saddle-flaps, and flowed in a clear gentle stream. By the aneroid barometer I made the elevation of this place 2490 feet above the sea.

Whilst here, a courier arrived with our post from India, with dates up to the 1st February from Jacobabad. We now learned, for the first time, and to our no small surprise, that our party had been attacked, and our baggage plundered, by the rebel Brahoe on our way through the Míloh Pass. How the false report originated it was not difficult to surmise, considering the troubled state of the country at the time of our passage through it, and the readiness of the Indian newspapers to chronicle exciting news from the frontier states. A courier also arrived with letters for the General from Sir F. Goldsmid, dated Sihkoha, 2d February. His party had arrived there the previous day, after a trying march from Bandar Abbas, crossing en route a range of mountains on which the cold was as great as that we experienced in Balochistan, the thermometer sinking to 5° Fah. This courier, through ignorance of the route we had taken, proceeded by Farráh and Girishk to Kandahar, whence he was put on our right track, and hence the delay in his arrival.