THE RETREAT FROM CAUL.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 161, 31 March 1916, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE RETREAT FROM CAUL.

On January G, 1842. British force-- 5 , consisting of about four thousand »ve hundred soldiers, with twelve thousand camp followers, comemnced their disastrous retroilt from Cabul, the only possible route lying through a difficult country; the fugitives were ill-fitted to endure the cold of an Afghan winter, having hut few tents, and iieing provided with a verv meagre supply of provis : ons. Every few hours the fanatical Ghilyzccs charged down upon the long, confused line of .-old ery, rabble, camels, women and chi'dr.en, all hopelessly mixed up in a liewildered crowd, the cold lieing so intense that nvny of tlie men were not able to carry lluvr arms. At the end of the third day's journey the exhausted crowd rea-' u d the ill-omened Koord Cabul Pais, and began their weary struggle through the gloomy ravine, r.taped with h.eavy snow drifts, under a constant and deadlylire from .be enemy, m; thet by t'eo evening of the 10th not one quarter remained of the force that had left Cabul four days previously. The remnant of the men determined to attempt to reach Judullkuk Pass, behind which a horde of ravage Afghans were waiting. With a cry of exultant iury the ant'ves poured down upon tli.'' a'ready half-dead soldiers, and from the butchery that followed only sixty men escaped, and even these were not destined to reach Jellalabad. <>n January 13 the garrison of that fortress saw a single man approaching, mounted upon a wretched little pony, and bunging exhausted upon its neck; it was Dr. Brydone, the sole survivor of the sixteen tiiosuand fugitives from Cabul.