parties of sepoys were sent out had something to do with their to the various headmen of keenness ! villages all round to collect more; I also sent an urgent messenger to Gough, telling him what was on, and bidding him take like precautions with regard to any transport men he had. The first to arrive after Oldham were the Hunza and Nagar levies, about 50 of each, armed with Snider carbines. They had covered the 140 miles from their homes in the upper Hunza Valley in four days fine performance. These tribes, though living on the opposite banks of the unfordable Hunza River, were quite different in race, and were hereditary enemies still jealous of each other. The Nagar men arrived an hour in front of the men of Hunza, and let me know at once that they were very proud of the fact; but the Hunza men when they came expressed great contempt for those of Nagar, because the Muhammadan fast of the Ramzan being on, the latter, being low-class Muhammadans, had not kept it on the march, whereas they of Hunza, being orthodox, had done so. For this the Hunza men took great unction unto themselves, and considered they had shown great zeal in the faith and had acquired great merit. But fast or no fast, it was a great effort for even these active hill men; perhaps the fact that from the date of their arrival at Gupis they were all to be issued with free rations as on active service Humayan, the Prime Minister of Hunza, and a well-known character, was in command of the Hunza men. He was travelled, courteous, and very intelligent; he had also the reputation of being very cunning withal! These levies were nice cheery fellows, constantly laughing and joking, and very expert cragsmen; it was a wise act to remove them out of their own valley with their rifles at such a time, but it was only to be expected that they would be inclined to sit on the fence until events had declared for the Sirkar. And so we looked on them with a certain amount of suspicion. I went out to meet Colonel Kelly on the 26th of March, and was directed to hand over command of the fort to Captain de Vismes, who accompanied him, and to bring the guns on to Ghizar. Beyond that everything was problematical, as the prospect of getting them on farther through the snow was a very doubtful one. But I was delighted to rejoin my men, and for the chance with them of seeing what we could do, if Colonel Kelly and his men went any farther. I entertained Colonel Kelly and his officers that night on exactly half of my very small stock of stores and whisky, reserving the rest for Peterson and his when they arrived the next day. Colonel Kelly left on the 27th, and I went out to meet the second detachment, had got to know them and their under Peterson, with the guns. The latter were marching well, and were as pleased to see me as I was to see them. They had an unnecessary amount of transport. Forage beyond Gupis was certain to be a serious difficulty, and some of the baggage mules appeared unequal to struggling through deep snow loaded. So immediately we got in the commandant and I went into committee together, and everything was ruthlessly cut down. The men only demurred when it came to a question of dispensing with the mule that carried their cooking-pots. I maintained that each man must carry on his person what was indispensable. Dogras being high-caste Hindus are very particular about everything connected with the preparation of their food, and they only agreed unwillingly, and on the understanding that active service necessitated this privation. But once accepted, they never murmured, and after the expedition was over, and they had been complimented very highly and deservedly for the services they had rendered, the one thing these men prided themselves on more than anything else was that they had marched to Chitral with fewer cookingpots than the Musby Sikhs of the Pioneers, who to them were low caste! The British officers of the 32nd Pioneers were a singularly nice lot of fellows, and good soldiers without exception. I Indian officers well the previous summer during a month spent with them at Astor. With the prospect of much hard work in front of us, I was also especially pleased to have the Dogra section of the battery. They were Mian Dogras almost to a man, the proudest clan of all. For them, as they used to tell me, there were only two possible professions: soldiering, the most honourable of all; and tilling the soil. The latter was also honourable, but less so for the Mian Dogra, as it implied poverty. As they put We Mian Dogras till our fields by night, Sahib, so that none shall see us doing it!" The commandant, Hazara Singh, though not really sufficiently active, by reason of his years, for command of a mountain battery, was a gallant and very courteous Indian gentleman, and set his men a fine example throughout; the jemadar, or subaltern, was not up to standard, and unreliable; the two havildars or sergeants, Dhrm Singh (i.e., the Lion of the Faith) and Bulwan Singh (i.e., the Lion of Strength), were exceptionally good noncommissioned officers, and both distinguished themselves signally. Both were fine powerful men, quick, and very intelligent. The rank and file were a sturdy lot, in hard condition, and very keen; and there was not a sore back among the mules. We were unfortunately completely deficient in one most important article of fire caused one's eyes to smart intensely. The huts had many other inhabitants, and no amount of cleaning out appeared to expel them. Once a fire was lit, they became very active, and could be seen hopping towards you by dozens with unfailing instinct. We officers slept outside the first night, preferring the bitter cold to the fleas; but as we progressed, the cold became too intense, and we had few blankets. I suppose in time we became inoculated like the natives, and ceased to take much notice; but the less said the better! equipment, tinted snow-glasses. the acrid smoke from a wood The large supply kept in Gilgit had run out, and the Pioneers, who as first on the scene had been first served, had barely sufficient to go round their men. My own private pair were the only set in the section. I entertained Peterson and his officers to the best of my ability, and we were a very cheery party that night. We all left Gupis on the 28th of March. We had heard few details regarding the large force assembling under Sir Hugh Low for the relief of Chitral; but all ranks were animated with the keenest desire to carry aid to our comrades in Mastuj with all speed, and to avenge Ross and his stalwart Sikhs, and as we could not but fear, Edwardes and Fowler and their men. After an exhausting march of 17 miles over an execrable road we billeted in village huts at Dhaimal. These country huts were all of the same description-small, and with nothing of luxury about them. They contained one square central living-room, with a raised dais all round on which to sit and lie, and a square depression in the middle for fire. The roofs were low, and the only ventilation was afforded by a square hole in the roof for the smoke to issue by, and a door, against the low lintel of which one invariably knocked one's head. If the hole in the roof was left open, any warmth at once escaped with the smoke ; if it were even partially closed, Two days later we entered the area of snow. It lay some inches deep everywhere, and occasionally in deep drifts caused by avalanches across the track. We were not to get out of it for 50 miles, and our difficulties with the mules began at once. In one place, where the road ran high above the river skirting a drop of 500 feet, a great mass of snow had completely filled up a little nullah 50 yards broad, and lay in a steep slope down to where it broke off abruptly at the edge of the cliff. The crust being fairly hard with the night's frost, the first few mules got over all right. Then two slipped and skated down, luckily sticking in softer snow before they came to the edge, and lay struggling and helpless under their loads. The men were smart and on the spot, and some of us at mules a lot, balling under their feet in the sun, and the glare off it had begun to affect all our eyes. Borradaile collected five pairs of glasses from his men for us : two pairs were served out to the gun layers of each gun, with the strictest orders they were never to remove them outside during daylight; one pair went to the the commandant, and my sixth pair to the hospital orderly. Borradaile met us with, "It's all right, old gunner; on again to-morrow!" which was a great relief to my little band. Colonel Kelly's orders, we gathered, were "To proceed to Ghizar, and to endeavour to effect the relief of Mastuj." We British officers, with the exception of Colonel Kelly and Borradaile, were all subalterns, filled with the desire to reach Chitral in front of Sir Hugh Low's force, and generally spoiling for a fight. once clambered down to assist inches deep. It bothered the the animals. Two men sat on their heads, while we removed the loads and saddles, which were hauled up with dragropes. Long strong tarpaulin straps were then buckled together and passed round the mules, and with a man at the head of each, they were laboriously hauled up through the snow again. The whole thing did not take long, and was a smart bit of mountain artillery work, though little more than an almost everyday incident at Gilgit on hill parades; but the pioneer sepoys who witnessed it, and who thought the mules as good as lost, were much impressed. We got the rest of the animals across by laying down earth on the track, but it alarmed me for what might be in store for us. A Pioneer Indian officer gave a great description of the affair when he got in, and related how I had stripped myself nearly naked, dived into the snow, and carried the mules up practically bodily on my own. But it pleased me greatly to see that the pioneer sepoys appreciated that we knew our job, and were workmen. knew that once they got that idea into their heads they would imagine we would be equally good in action, and they would not want the little guns left behind, the fear of which was a nightmare to me. As it happened, I was perfectly right. I On the 31st March we arrived at Ghizar, where snow lay six The whole column left Ghizar on April Fool's Day to do a long march through the snow to the foot of the Shandour Pass. Just at starting, it was discovered that a considerable number of the local inhabitants carrying loads, not relishing the prospect in front of them, had bolted during the night, no guard having been placed over them. For this there was no excuse. Being told they had only been gone two hours, I jumped on to the commandant's pony, and received permission to go after them. The But track was of the worst, descend- Stewart; they will have to ing rapidly, narrow, and slip- wait until the snow melts." pery with ice and snow. we hustled along at a good pace for some 14 miles, until I could see down a long stretch of straight valley with no one in sight on the road. The pony was dead-beat. A good few men had been overtaken proceeding along one or other bank of the river, and these had all been turned back for the time being, with the aid of a dozen or so rounds from my revolver, fired to frighten them when necessary. Abandoning the pony by the side of the road, I started to walk back. I soon met a headman returning to Gupis, and making him dismount, appropriated his pony, telling him he might find mine farther on. I got back to Ghizar about 1.30 P.M., and found that Cobbe with 50 rifles had been left behind to bring me on. Some 50 transport men had actually returned, so the effort was not wasted. After a hasty meal we started off, but had hardly gone a couple of miles when, rounding a corner, we descried the column in the distance, obviously returning. We waited for them to reach us, and learnt they had encountered deep snow a mile or two on, and that the mules had floundered hopelessly in it up to their bellies, and had been unable to get on. Colonel Kelly said, "It's no use trying to get the guns on, The loads for the transport men had also been too heavy. Borradaile with two companies of pioneers (200 rifles), with Oldham's sappers and the Hunza levies, had been dropped at the last little grazing hamlet of Teru, 3 miles from Ghizar, where there were a few wretched huts, with all available coolie transport, with instructions to try and push on the next day. He was to try and cross the pass, seize the first village of Laspur on the far side, and send his transport back. The remainder of the column was to return to Ghizar, where every dispensable article was to be dropped, and to await the return of Borradaile's coolies, should he succeed in getting over. Heavy snow soon began to fall, and I spent a miserable night confabulating with that good fellow Hugh Gough 1 as to what could be done. As a result we were up early next morning, and turned out our men to knock together rough sledges, made from the branches of poplar-trees and broken-up ration boxes. We tried the first sledge with a load of ammunition boxes (downhill!), and managed to get it along after a fashion. We also collected a number of half-bred yaks out of the village with the idea of driving them in front through the snow and beating out a hard track; in addition, we 1 Now Lieut.-Colonel Hugh A. K. Gough, C.I.E. |