At the Court of the Amîr: A Narrative

by John Alfred Gray

I replied that I was awaiting His Highness’s orders. He asked me how long leave I should like; and when I said I left that entirely to him, he enquired whether six months would be sufficient.

His Highness said also, that he would let me know before my return in what part of the country he was to be found, whether in Herat, Kandahar, Turkestan, or Kabul, so that I could join him. He desired me to draw the plans of a house such as I should like to live in, and he would build it for me.

If my wife, after I were married, wished to return with me, he should be pleased; and should she after some months find the climate uncongenial, his permission would be granted her to return to England. Should she, however, prefer to remain in England, leave of absence would be granted me every two years. His Highness also told me many interesting things: among them the reason why Afghanistan is poverty-stricken and powerless, and he sketched methods in which the resources of the country might be developed if only his people had sense enough to follow out his directions; but, as he said, there were so few he could trust.

This very man before him, the Secretary, could not be trusted even to write a letter correctly; and yet, he said, this man and his brother were secretaries to Amîr Shere Ali; and more, they had the keeping of the King’s Signet. Why, therefore, with such men in power, should not the country have become weak, poverty-stricken, and on the verge of ruin!

Geologists in the Service.

One of his designs, he told me, was to again employ an English geologist, and when the presence of valuable minerals was made known, to open up roads and start mining operations.

His Highness’s words were words of wisdom: but looking back, as I do, with a knowledge of the past, I am greatly in doubt as to whether the nature of the Oriental will allow to any European geologist in the Amîr’s service anything like a fair chance of success in his endeavours. From the outset his good faith is doubted. I heard from Captain Griesbach, C.I.E., how hampered he had been on every hand; how impossible it was made for him to do any useful work; for the whisper had been spread—even I heard it—that he carried a note-book, and if he found a mineral of value it was not the Amîr to whom the fact was reported, but the British Government. Disgusted that his efforts should be so curtailed and his powers made useless, the Captain left the service.

The next geologist who entered the service was Mr. Arthur Collins, F.G.S., who was recommended to the Amîr’s Agent by the Home Office. His experiences were very similar to those of Captain Griesbach. He was followed about rigorously by a guard, and from whatever place he took a specimen, from the same place an official in his ignorance took what he considered to be a similar specimen: this was to act as a check on the geologist! After a few months Mr. Collins, new to the country, photographed some interesting geological formations that he saw. At once it was reported that the new geologist was a political agent spying out the nakedness of the land. He was recalled to Kabul and kept, as Captain Griesbach had been, for months doing nothing, till, in disgust, he also resigned. Whether any other able man will in the future consider it other than waste of time to work against such obstacles—petty, intangible, but real—I know not. The game seems hardly worth the candle: unless, indeed, one thinks fit to descend and meet the Oriental on his own ground: to employ bribery; or, having learnt the language, to indulge in intrigue and trip his enemies one by one:—not a difficult matter—for that any educated Englishman of ordinary intelligence is a match for an Afghan or Hindustani I have not a doubt, granted that he cares to employ his brain in such unclean work. Pitch, however, is proverbially defiling, and the triumph is lost if one comes out of a game besmeared.

His Highness desired me to inform him as soon as I had finished the arrangements I wished to make at the Hospital to enable the Hindustani assistants to carry on the work during my absence; then I was to start on my journey home. He said many kind things to me; among others, that he considered me a man worthy of trust. He added that there were certain orders he should commission me to execute in London.

These, I found, were to be the sending out of materials—silks, satins, and cloth; and jewellery of various kinds. My education, however, having been medical, I was not in any sense a business man, and it occurred to me that this was a suitable opportunity for acceding to the Armenian’s request, and taking him to London with me: he could attend to these matters better than I.