A Peep into Toorkisthhan | Page 2

Jellalabad, and the
other strongholds of the country; our outposts were pushed to the
north-west some fifty miles beyond Bamee[=a]n, the Khyber and Bolun
passes were open, and to the superficial observer all was tranquil. The
elements of strife indeed existed, but at the time when I took the ramble
which these pages attempt to describe, British power was paramount,
and the rumour was already rife of the speedy diminution of the force
which supported it.
Notwithstanding the modern rage for exploration, but few of our
countrymen have hitherto pierced the stupendous barrier of the
Paropamisan range; but the works of Hanway, Forster, Moorcroft, and
Trebeck, Masson, and Sir Alexander Burnes, convey most valuable
information concerning the wild regions through which they travelled,
and I am bound in simple honesty to confess that my little book does
not aspire to rank with publications of such standard merit. An author's
apology, however humble and sincere, is seldom attended to and more
rarely accepted. Surely I am not wrong in assuming that a feeling of
mournful interest will pervade the bosom of those who have the
patience to follow my perhaps over-minute description of places whose
names may be already familiar to them as connected with the career of
those bold spirits who in life devoted their energies to the good of their
country and the advancement of science, and who in the hour of
disaster, when every hope was dead, met their fate with the unflinching
gallantry of soldiers and the patient resignation of Christians.
My lamented friend, Lieutenant Sturt, of the Bengal Engineers, was
one of the foremost of those who endeavoured, during the critical
situation of the Cabul force previous to its annihilation, to rally the
drooping spirits of the soldiers; and without wishing in any way to

reflect on others, it may fairly be said that his scientific attainments and
personal exertions contributed not a little to those partial successes,
which to the sanguine seemed for a moment to restore the favourable
aspect of our military position. But I forbear from now dwelling upon
these circumstances, lest I might undesignedly give pain to those who
still survive the fatal event, merely stating my humble opinion that the
memory of any mistake committed, either in a political or military light,
will by the noble-minded be drowned in sorrow for the sufferings and
death of so many thousands of brave men.
In the month of June, 1840, Lieutenant Sturt was ordered to survey the
passes of the Hindoo Koosh, and I obtained leave from my regiment,
then in camp at Cabul, for the purpose of accompanying him; my
object was simply to seek pleasant adventures; the "_cacoethes
ambulandi_" was strong upon me, and I thirsted to visit the capital of
ancient Bactria; the circumstances which prevented our reaching Balkh
will hereafter be detailed, but the main object of the expedition was
attained, as Sturt executed an excellent map of the passes alluded to,
and satisfactorily demonstrated that almost all the defiles of this vast
chain, or rather group of mountains, may be turned, and that it would
require a large and active well-disciplined force to defend the principal
ones. I have made every possible inquiry as to the fate of the results of
Sturt's labours, but fear that they too were lost in the dreadful retreat.
Whatever still exists must be in the Quarter-Master General's
Department in India, far out of my reach, so that I am obliged again to
request the indulgence of my reader for the want of a proper map on
which he might, if he felt so inclined, trace our daily progress,[*] and to
crave his forgiveness if I occasionally repeat what has been far more
ably related by Moorcroft and the other authors whom I have already
mentioned.
[* Note: Since receiving the proof sheets for correction I have been
kindly supplied by my friend Major Wade with a map taken principally
from the one executed by the late Lieutenant Sturt.]
To the traveller whose experience of mountain scenery is confined to
Switzerland, the bold rocks and rich though narrow valleys of the

frontiers of Toorkisth[=a]n offer all the charms of novelty; the lower
ranges of hills are gloomy and shrubless, contrasting strikingly with the
dazzling, yet distant splendour of the snowy mountains. It is an
extraordinary fact, that throughout the whole extent of country
occupied by these under features, which presents every variety of form
and geological structure, there are scarcely any hills bearing trees or
even shrubs; every valley, however, is intersected by its native stream,
which in winter pursues its headlong course with all the impetuosity of
a mountain torrent, but in the summer season glides calmly along as in
our native meadows.
The multitude and variety of well-preserved fossils which are imbedded
in