[319] The General forwarded a translation of the letter to Nott, who sent it back with his comments. The charges and the denials appear in the Appendix as they were forwarded to Pollock’s camp.
[320] He asked Mayne, on the 17th, when that officer appeared in his camp, as mentioned at page 347, how many days’ supplies General Pollock had with him? and when Mayne replied that he believed the General had about a week’s supplies for his troops, “What business, then,” asked Nott, “has General Pollock up at Caubul with only a week’s supplies?” Mayne, of course, made no answer.
[321] A considerable body of Kuzzilbashes, under the command of Shah-zadah Shahpoor and Khan Shereen Khan, the whole in charge of Captain Colin Mackenzie, had accompanied M’Caskill’s force, and co-operated with much effect, especially in rescuing a number of sepoys and camp-followers of Elphinstone’s force from slavery. General Pollock had appointed Captain Mackenzie to this important duty in consequence of Lord Ellenborough’s request that he would select that officer or John Conolly, if within his reach, for any political mission that might be called for, even to the important duty of accompanying General Nott’s force, if it were expedient for that officer to return by a different route from Pollock’s. On reaching Hindostan, however, Mackenzie met with the same neglect and injustice as the other “children of another Government.”
[322] See Papers in the Appendix.
[323] Major Rawlinson’s MS. Journal.
[324] “On the 9th our engineers set to work to blow up and destroy the Char Chutta. The cry went forth that Caubul was given up to plunder. Both camps rushed into the city, and the consequence has been the almost total destruction of all parts of the town, except the Gholam-Khana quarter and the Balla Hissar.... Numbers of people (about 4000 or 5000) had returned to Caubul, relying on our promises of protection—rendered confident by the comparative immunity they had enjoyed during the early part of our sojourn here, and by the appearance, ostentatiously put forth, of an Afghan Government. They had many of them re-opened their shops. These people have been now reduced to utter ruin. Their goods have been plundered, and their houses burnt over their heads. The Hindoos in particular, whose numbers amount to some 500 families, have lost everything they possess, and they will have to beg their way to India in rear of our columns. The Chundarwal has had a narrow escape. Safeguards have been placed at the different gates; but I doubt not if our parties of plunderers would not have forced an entrance had not the Gholam Khana stood to their arms, and showed and expressed a determination to defend their property to the last.”—[Major Rawlinson’s MS. Journal.]
[325] Captain G. St. P. Lawrence, Sir W. Macnaghten’s Military Secretary, who had been present at his murder, and had subsequently shared the perils of the captivity.
[326] “Futteh Jung had urged his people to set fire to the palace as he came out, observing that Shahpoor’s rule would be a brief one, and that his own feelings revolted at the idea of the Suddozye seraglio falling to the lot of either Mahomed Akbar or the Ghilzyes. Some attempts were in consequence made at incendiarism, but the flames did not spread.”—[Major Rawlinson’s MS. Journal.]
[327] They seem to have been admitted by Pollock, but to have been expelled by Nott. “General Pollock’s camp,” wrote Rawlinson in his journal, “is crowded with hangers-on, imperfectly provided with carriage or supplies, and he necessarily experiences much inconvenience in consequence. General Nott has positively refused to permit his force to be encumbered in the same way, and yesterday evening a general clearance of our camp took place, preparatory to the march. About 500 men were expelled from the Bazaar of the 16th Regiment alone, where they had taken refuge. Most of these people were the destitute Hindoos of Caubul and Ghuznee. They had hoped to have found means of returning to Hindostan with our column; but have been now obliged to go back to Caubul and bide their fate among the Afghans.”—[Major Rawlinson’s MS. Journal.]
[328] Pollock took forty-four guns and a large quantity of ordnance stores; but not the least of his trophies were a large number of miserable mutilated natives of India, crippled by wounds or by the frost, who had escaped with their lives from the great wreck of Elphinstone’s army. Pollock now provided them with carriage, appointed two officers to the charge of them, and conveyed them to Hindostan.