stream, military and political, which was then, in 1858-59, surging upwards towards Caubul. It is narrated of him, that joining the camp of the Governor-General, in the upper provinces, he was warmly welcomed by Lord Auckland, who received, with the liveliest interest, the information with which he was laden, and would have listened with admiration to his narrative of the stirring scenes in which he had been engaged, if he had spoken more of himself and his actions. He was of course invited to join the Government circle at dinner; but nothing was known of his arrival, until the guests were assembling in the great dinnertent. Then it was observed that a "native," in Afghan costume, was leaning against one of the poles of the tent; obviously a shy, reserved man, with somewhat of a downcast look; and the Government - House Staff looked askance at him, whispered to each other, wondered what intruder he was, and suggested to each other that it would be well for some one to bid him to depart. But the "some one "" was not found; presently the Governor-General entered, and leading his sister, Miss Eden, up to the stranger, said, "Let me present you to the hero of Herat." Then, of course, there was a great commotion in the tent, and, in spite of etiquette, the assembly burst into something not unlike a cheer.

When the invasion of Afghanistan had been pro claimed, and the army of the Indus had gone forth to do the unjust bidding of the Government, and Shah Soojah had been placed upon "the throne of his fathers," there was small likelihood of such a man as Eldred Pottinger being neglected, for the services which he was able to afford were those which were most needed in such an emergency. Whilst he had been doing such great things at Herat, the arrangements for the formation of the Caubul Embassy had been made; and so it was not easy at once to find a fitting place for the young Bombay artilleryman. But after awhile he was appointed a political agent in the Kohistan, or country to the north of Caubul (officially styled Political Agent on the Toorkistan frontier); and there the great movement for the expulsion of the British from Afghanistan found him in the early winter of 1841. His head-quarters were in the castle of Lughmance, some two miles from Charekur, where a regiment of Goorkhas, in the service of Shah Soojah, was garrisoned. In the Lughmanee Castle, the enemy attacked the political agent and his staff, and they, with their little escort, were in peril of total annihilation. It was a rising of the whole country, and how could they hope to escape? But, by wise arrangements, which eluded the vigilance of the enemy, Pottinger with a few followers contrived to make good his retreat to Charekur, under the shadow of the night. He had scarcely thrown himself into that place, when the enemy began to rage furiously against the people of the King and his supporters. The time for negotiation had passed; so Pottinger, divesting

himself of his political character, took command of the guns, and prepared to resist the insurgents.

But there was an enemy which it was impossible to resist. The little garrison held out manfully against vastly superior numbers; but they were perishing from thirst. The insurgents had cut off their supplies of water, and there was no hope for them. Reduced to this strait, they were summoned to surrender. The condition to secure their safety was that Christians and Hindoos alike should accept the Mahomedan faith. "We came to a Mahomedan country," answered Pottinger, "to aid a Mahomedan sovereign in the recovery of his rights. We are, therefore, within the rule of Islam, and exempt from coercion on the score of religion." They told him that the King had ordered the attack; and he replied, "Bring me his written orders. I can do nothing without them."

But the thirst was destroying them. The last drop of water had been served out; and when they endeavoured to steal out in the night to obtain a little of the precious moisture from a neighbouring spring, the enemy discovered them and shot them down like sheep. There was failure after failure, and then the disciplined fighting men became a disorganised rabble. The few that remained staunch were very weak, and they had but a few rounds of ammunition in their pouches. With this little body of Goorkha troops, and two or three officers--for many had been killed-Pottinger determined to fight his way to Caubul. He had been badly wounded, and the pain was insufferable; but be exerted himself to keep together the little party of distracted men. All his efforts, however, were in vain: they straggled and fell by the wayside ; and at last it became painfully apparent that no man could do anything for his neighbour, and that the best service that an English officer could render to his country would be to save himself. Two only escaped. Pottinger and Houghton reached Caubul; and of the native garrison, only a single sepoy of the Goorkha regiment and two men attached to the civil departments succeeded in making good their flight.

When Eldred Pottinger reached Caubul, he was compelled, for some time, to nurse his wounds; but, before long, the great crisis of the insurrection brought him again to the front. Sir William Macnaghten, who was at the head of the British Mission, was slain by Akbar Khan; and every man in camp then felt that Pottinger was the man above all others to extricate the English from the difficulties which hemmed them in, as with a ring of fire. It was on the 23rd of December, 1841, that' the Envoy was killed. On the 25th, Pottinger wrote to Major Macgregor, who was Political Agent at Jellalabad :—

naghten was called out to a conference and murdered. We have interchanged terms on the ground he was treating on for leaving the country; but things are not finally settled. However, we are to fall back on Jellalabad to-morrow or next day. In the present disturbed state of the country we may expect opposition on the road, and we are likely to suffer much from the cold and hunger, as we expect to have no carriage for tents and superfluities, I have taken charge of the Mission. Mackenzie, Lawrence, and Conolly are all seized. The first two I fear for. The latter is quite safe. The cantonment is now attacked.

Five days afterwards, he wrote to Captain Mackeson at Peshawur, disguising the language of his letter in French and signing his name in Greek, because there were those in the enemy's camp who could read English.

"CANTONNEMENTS À CABOOL, 30me de Décembre, 1841. "MON CHER MACKESON,-J'ai eu le plaisir de recevoir votre lettre du 12me au feu Envoyé. Notre situation ici est des plus dangereuses. L'Envoyé était tué à une conférence, qui avait lieu hors d'ici, le 23 de ce mois. Quand je prenais charge je trouvais qu'il avait engagé du part du gouvernement de quitter Afghanistan, et de donner hostages pour que le Dost soyait mis en liberté, aussi que pour préliminaires il avait rendu le Balla Hissar et les forts qui dominent les cantonnements. Ces acts et le manque des vivres faisaient les cantonnements untenable, et les quatre officiers militaires supérieurs disaient qu'il fallait résumer le traité au lieu de forcer une marche rétrograde sur Jellalabad. Nous avons aujourd'hui finis les termes du traité, et nous espérons partir d'ici demain ou après demain. De leur promesses je m'en doute, malgré que les ordres ont été expédiés pour que nos troupes quittent Candahar et Ghizny. Il faut que vous tenez ouvert le Khyber, et que vous soyez prêt nous aider le passage; car si nous ne sommes pas protégés, il nous serait impossible faire halte en route pour que les troupes se refraichissent, sans laquelle j'ai peur qu'ils soient désorganisés.

“ Ελδρεδ Ποττινγερ.

*་

Après aujourd'hui j'écrirai mon nom en lettres Grecques. Lorsque le Cossid vous remettra cette lettre vous lui donnerez trois cent rupees."

but all in vain. The military authorities had determined that they could fight no longer, and that there was nothing to be done but to make an ignominious retreat from the country, which they had so proudly invaded. The explanation of the circumstances, which at last compelled him, sorely against the promptings of his own courageous heart, to negotiate with the Afghan chiefs for a safe conduct, is on record. "We received," he wrote, in a report to Government drawn up at a subsequent period, "a tender from Mahomed Oosman Khan, offering to escort the army to Peshawar for the sum of five lakhs of rupees, as had been offered him (he said) by Sir W. Macnaghten. At the same time, letters from Captains Macgregor and Mackeson were received, urging Sir William to hold out, and informing us of the reinforcements which were on their way from India. The information from the city showed that feuds were running high there, and that Shah Soojah appeared to be getting up a respectable party for himself. When I informed General Elphinstone of these facts, he summoned a council of war, consisting of Brigadier Shelton, Brigadier Anquetil, Lieut. -Colonel Chambers, Captain Bellew, and Captain Grant. At the Major-General's request I laid the above-mentioned facts and the enemy's tenders before these officers, and also my own opinion that we should not treat with the enemy, because-firstly, I had every reason to believe that the enemy were deceiving us; secondly, I considered it our duty to hold aloof from all measures which would tie the hands of Government as to its future acts; and thirdly, that we had no right to sacrifice so large a sum of public money (amounting to nineteen lakhs) to purchase our own safety or to order other commanding officers to give up the trust confided to them-for it was especially laid down by writers on international law that a general had no authority to make any treaty, unless he were able to enforce the conditions, and that he could not treat for the future, but only for the present. The council of war, however, unanimously decided that remaining at Caubul and forcing a retreat were alike impracticable, and that nothing remained for us but endeavouring to release the army, by agreeing to the tenders offered by the enemy; and that any sum, in addition to what had already been promised by Sir William Macnaghten, if it tended to secure the safety of the army, would be well expended, and that our right to negotiate on these terms was proved by Sir William Macnaghten having agreed to them before his assassination. Under these circumstances, as the Major-General coincided with the officers of the council, and refused to attempt occupying the Balla Hissar; as his second in command, who had been in there, de

So the name of "Eldred Pottinger, Major,*" was attached to the Treaty; and on the 6th of January, 1842, the British army was under arms to march out of Caubul. But the escort, which the Afghan chiefs had promised for the protection of the conquered, had not been sent. "The military authorities, however," wrote Pottinger, in the report above quoted, "refused to wait; and notwithstanding my advice to the contrary marched out of our entrenchments." There was nothing but death before them; for the snow had fallen heavily, and the wretched Hindostanee soldiers could not bear up against the rigours of the Northern winter. Pottinger clearly foresaw this, and endeavoured to impress upon the military authorities the importance of so clothing the Sepoys as to resist the severities of the winter, and enable them to escape the destructive bitings of the frost. "Major Pottinger told us," says a writer of note in the Calcutta Review, "that when the retreat was decided on, and no attention was paid to his, Lawrence's, and Conolly's advice, to concentrate in the Balla Hissar, he urged the officers to have all the old horse-clothing, &c., cut into strips and rolled round the soldiers' feet and ankles after the Afghan fashion, as a better protection against snow than the mere hard leather of shoes. This he repeatedly urged, but in vain, and within a few hours the frost did its work. Major Pottinger said that there was not an Afghan around them, who had not his legs swathed in rags as soon as the snow began to

fall."

Then came that memorable retreat through the dreadful snow, of which history has but few parallels. The Afghans, whom there was no one to hold in restraint, swarmed down upon our unhappy people, and massacred them, benumbed and helpless as they were, almost without resistance. At last, the Barukzye chief, Akbar Khan, who had slain Sir William Macuaghten, appeared upon the scene, and promised to escort the remnant of the army safely to the British frontier, if three hostages were given up to him as a guarantee for the evacuation of our outposts in other parts of the country. Brigadier Shelton and Captain Lawrence were named; but Shelton refused to go; so Pottinger offered to take his place, and the offer was accepted. George Lawrence and Colin Mackenzie were his companions. From that time, in the early part of January, to the September of the same year (1842), Eldred Pottinger remained a prisoner in the hands of Akbar Khan. All the circumstances of this memorable captivity are well known, for there are few who have not read the

*He had been promoted to a brevet majority and created a Companion of the Bath for his services at erat.

interesting journals of Vincent Eyre and Florentia Sale. To the bold front which he assumed, when tidings came that General Pollock was advancing victoriously upon Caubul, the captives owed it mainly, under Providence, that they finally obtained their release. As briefly told by the historian of the war there is something almost ludicrous in the confidence of this little band of Englishmen. For we are told that at Bameean, "they deposed the Governor of the place, and appointed a more friendly chief in his stead. They levied contributions on a party of Lohanee merchants who were passing that way, and so supplied themselves with funds. And, to crown all, Major Pottinger began to issue proclamations, calling upon all the neighbouring chiefs to come in and make their salaam; he granted remissions of revenue; and all the decent clothes in the possession of the party were collected to bestow as khelats (dresses of honour)." And there was wisdom in this; for so true is the old Latin adage, “Possunt qui posse videntur."

But when General Pollock's army marched back triumphantly to the British Provinces, it was a matter of official necessity that the conduct of Major Pottinger, who had signed a treaty for the evacuation of Afghanistan, should be submitted to investigation. A Court of Inquiry was therefore held, over which Mr. (now Sir George) Clerk presided; and what was then elicited only contributed to throw greater lustre on the young artilleryman's name. It was an inquiry of which no man doubted the result. After this Eldred Pottinger went down to Calcutta; and after a brief residence there, determined on a visit to his family in Europe. During his residence at the Presidency, as I well remember, the attempts to lionise him were very unsuccessful. Everybody was struck by the extreme modesty of his demeanour. He was shy and reserved, and unwilling to speak of himself. His uncle, Sir Henry Pottinger, was then at the head of our affairs in China. Moved by feelings of affection and gratitude, he resolved to pay his distinguished relative a visit; and during this visit, in a disastrous hour, he caught the Hong-Kong fever, and on the 15th of November, 1843, a career of the brightest promise was cut short by untimely death. The romance of Indian History has few more interesting chapters than the story of Eldred Pottinger-the defender of Herat.