AFGHANS IN THE BRITISH ARMY.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3172, 19 April 1879, Page 4

AFGHANS IN THE BRITISH ARMY.

It is not generally known tK t j eSD ; te the long-continued enttitv ' E land and Afghanis^ V *tT o f the bravest soldies of'r uv "eyera! °* j£! of Afohan ' - Britain have been men noted ?.- «lood. Among the most ■n o i- *i these -was a Sepoy from the „an Pass, Schitab Boy by name, who specially distinguished himself in one of the earlier campaigns against the Mahrattas. When the : little band of English were completely surrounded by clouds of charging horsemen, the gallant Afghan, bearing the regimental colors, was seen in the thickest of the fight, .waving the flag over his bead. A bullet at length broke the staff, when its indomitable bearer, determined at all hazards to save it from capture, "tore it from the shattered pole, and, wrapping it around his own body, fought his way through the swarming assailants with the cherished banner, which, ,in the emphatic wordß of an eye-witness, " was literally riddled with saber-cuts." When the battle was won the brave man, reeling from sheer weakness and covered from head to foot with blood and dust, was led forward to receive the honours which the whole regiment adjudged him with one voice, a veteran grenadier adding with rough admiration, "I never thought as any nigger could fight like that." It is melancholy to be obliged to add that the hero of this splendid achievement was subsequently imprisoned on an utterly unfounded charge of treason and died shortly after his release.—New York Times.