THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 55, 7 February 1843, Page 3

THE WAR IN AFFGHANISTAN.

Extract of a letter from a non-commissioned officer of H. M. 9th Regiment of foot, dated “ Camp Jellalabad, April 20, 1842.”

“ I think, when I wrote from Kawntour, 1 told you our destination was Cabul. We marched from thereon the morning of the sth.' We ascended the heights in five hours, and found the enemy ready to receive us with a smart fire, which lasted eight hours, when they gave way. The infantry had the brunt of the work, particularly our regiment; we lost 20 men and a lieutenant, and 40 wounded. We were five days and nights on the top of the heights, with nothing but what we stood in, a continual firing kept up the whole time, and all we had to eat or drink was four or five mouldy biscuits and a quart of water, which we carried with us in our canteens. We did not suffer so much from want of food ; it was water we wanted most. A continued biting of cartridges causes thirst. The Khyber Pass is a deep and narrow ravine, overtopped with high mountains. After we ascended the first height and drove the enemy off, we mounted them successively; and as they fled we advanced, until we beat the whole of them, amounting to about 5000. It is calculated that 500 of the enemy were killed. We had hot an opportunity of taking any prisoners ; for as they gave no quarter .neither did we. The moment a man falls they run up and cut him to pieces with huge knives. After we came through the pass, we came to some villages ; but the inhabitants had all fled, and we burned them to the ground, and destroyed the ripe corn — hundreds of acres of it. Oh the 16th of this month we arrived at Jellalabad —a place desolate “in its appearance, it being a succession of mud rorts; in one of which the 13th Regiment of Foot had been shut up for seven months; and, not expecting any relief, they sallied out on the enemy, determined to die by the sword rather than die with hunger. Luckily they beat them off, leaving the plain on which we are now encamped, strewed with slain horses and men to the amount of 5000. We came to their relief in a few days after; so that there is now an army of 20,000 men, and not much fear of our ever being, attacked again. «. p.s.—We are going to attempt to release General Sale’s lady and daughter, with several other ladies, two soldiers’ wives, and two men of the 44th Regiment—all that is left of an entire regiment.”