THE FORCE AT CANDAHAR

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the vulgar Afghan would be perhaps equally desirable. However, the fruit garden in the stiff Elizabethan style is very delightful after the wildernesses and defiles of stern wild desolation which we have travelled through; and indeed the whole environs of Candahar consist of fruit gardens and cemeteries, with cypress avenues and a very few other trees. At one point it approaches a fine hill-range, which towers above it with colossal grandeur. I am told the bazaar is singularly well-furnished and elegant in its arrangements; but even with four sowars as escort I did not think it well to enter through the bazaar yesterday evening, as another way was open to the fort and camp behind the city. It is now two months since the last Ghazi attack took place. There is one tall hill called the "Little Khyber," which Mr. Gordon tried to scale last year, but found it impracticable, though he successfully tried Monte Rosa. A number of officers live here and are associated in the mess-one of the young Muirs, Major Euan Smith, &c.

To-day I keep quiet to prepare for to-morrow, and nursed my cold last evening by abstaining from the mess dinner, especially as it was Friday. I was so afraid I might not reach Candahar before this Sunday. I am sorely pushed for time, as I have incessant sermons and lectures before me. Pray that my words may be Christ's own, and accompanied by His blessing.'

Feb. 23. With eight or ten regiments here, and such a multitude of officers and men, little rest is permitted of any kind, yet I cannot but feel that it was by God's counsel that I came here, as the more serious part of the community so often express their thankful appreciation of the effort. I trust all the glory may be His, who from hour to hour supports me. There will be doubtless cavillers and scoffers, but some unsettled minds may be more established, I trust, and some seeking souls comforted and helped. The parade service in the open field yesterday was a striking sight. I gave an extempore address on Neh. v. 15, "So did not I, because of the fear of God." I was much helped to speak out, and was well heard throughout, I find, though with a bad cold I feared it might be otherwise. In the afternoon I addressed thirty or more in hospital on Jonah iv. In the evening I preached again in the garrison chapel, which holds about 100 and was rather well filled, on the Philippian jailer. I did not speak out so freely, but three extempore sermons are heavy. We had thirty-one at the Holy Communion. I called on the generals here to-day-Generals Palliser, Hughes, and Barter. Three out of the four here were at church and at least two at the Holy Communion yesterday. The other was ill of gout and unable to get out. To-night I addressed fifty or sixty officers and men on 3 John. It was a cheering and, to me at least, very helpful service; much thanks were expressed. You will be glad of this evidence of the visit being well-timed and respaded to by ready attention of good audiences. I try to place

myself lowlily, and with conviction of much insufficiency, at the disposal of Him whose minister I am. There is a succession of addresses for every day except to-morrow, when I visit the chief hospital.

'This morning Mr. Gordon and I visited the fort and city with an escort of three guards, with bayonets and guns. The fort is in a very dilapidated condition, with faded relics of old barbaric pomp, rich and gaudy colouring, here and there some well-chased wood-work, and casts in the plaster of Paris, which is made here of very strong and durable texture, and holds arches in excellent support of its own tenacity, without keystones or appliance of the rules which regulate the formation of arches. . . .

'There is a semicircle of more or less striking hills, especially the conical ones, below which is a fringe of native regiments - Sikh, Bengali, Ghoorkas, Sindh Horse, &c. Within these again are various batteries of Artillery, with 60th Rifles, 59th Regiment, Sappers, &c. Still nearer us, the Commissariat, Hospital, 25th Bengal Infantry, reaching almost to where we are in the centre of the horse-shoe, with the fruit and flower garden and streams from the Argandab river, which somehow pierces or finds its way round the semicircle of hills. I am taken great care of, almost too much so. Nobody seems to know anything of the future policy of the Government.'

'Feb. 28. I am getting my commissariat ready to start on Monday, having also to lecture this evening, and preach twice to-morrow. It has been almost the hardest time I have yet had, except perhaps Simla. I wish I could think it had been more useful, but living in such a crowd does not supply many of the opportunities of personal intercourse one desires. To preserve self-possession is so difficult. I got a quiet evening yesterday (Friday) to prepare for to-morrow, declining an invitation to the Ghoorka mess. I am to call on the native governor of the city, Shere Ali, this afternoon with an escort. Some moollahs talk of calling to-morrow between services, as they were interested in some remarks I let drop some days ago here. General Stewart is just gazetted Commander-in-Chief of Madras. He has been uniformly civil and kind.'

'Fort Chaman1, March 3 (on the return route from Candahar). Three days' long and fatiguing marches have brought me nearly halfway to Quettah, and but for the sickness of my Simla pony I should have some hope of reaching Quettah by Sunday, as I proposed to do. Sunday, I preached at the large parade service and in the garrison chapel, besides visiting hospitals and reading

1 Chaman is the spot where Major Waudby and his followers were cut up a few weeks later by the tribesmen.

LAST PARTING FROM G. M. GORDON

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with an officer who was stabbed by a Ghazi the day before, but not mortally, I trust. It was a Captain Greaves of the Artillery. I addressed a tea-party of about 120 soldiers on Saturday evening before dining with the Artillery. Beneath the fine hills which surround Candahar it was heart - gladdening to think of Moses' frequent reference to God as "Israel's Rock," as well as to His shepherd guidance of them.

'I left Mr. Gordon at about the eighth mile from Candahar, and was sorry to part with him. . . . He stays at Candahar for the present. The sun is a little powerful now, still it is not severely hot. I have a thick karkee pagri on my hat, and almost wish I had it on a white helmet, but I have not even had a headache. The snows have left a thin coating of green blades of grass on the plains we pass, which is refreshing after the utter sterility. I work away with the Afghans and Pathans I meet here and there.'

The bishop little thought that this would be his final parting with his friend. In view of what happened later, a special interest attaches to a letter from Gordon to Mrs. French to reassure her as concerned her husband's safety. It is also an independent testimony to the value set upon the bishop's visit:—

MY DEAR MRS. FRENCH,

Candahar, Feb. 25, 1880.

I have several times wished to write to you in the course of our journey, and I am sure you will be glad to hear that the bishop has arrived safely, and I think I may say on the whole comfortably, although I have sometimes been anxious lest the fatigue of double marches and the effect of the cold should overtax his powers of endurance. Now, however, that he is safe and sound I feel little apprehension about the return journey, for the weather is likely to improve, and this is the only source of risk now that the country is safe and the roads greatly improved upon our former experience. You will have had a better description in the bishop's letters than I can give you of the incidents and scenery of our route, and I think he finds more in the latter to admire than most of us.

But, while I am not enthusiastic in praise of the country and people, I feel very thankful for the reception which the bishop has had among officers and soldiers, both here and on the journey; and the good which he is able to do is a great compensation for the fatigue which he has undergone. The meetings and services here. are very cheering, and will I am sure long be remembered by those who have attended them. The bishop has a cold which needs nursing, the result I think of wet feet through walking in the snow on the Khojuk Pass. I am thankful that there has been no worse result from the bold experiment, and I hope that he will soon be

better, as he has a wonderful constitution and does things which I cannot emulate. I have every hope that through God's goodness you will see him back safely before Easter. My only regret is that I shall not be with him on his return journey to assist him, but there seems so much to be done here that he feels that it is my duty to remain and minister to the Bombay forces which will shortly arrive. Please to give my kindest regards to your daughters, and excuse a short letter under pressure of engagements. Yours very sincerely,

But to resume the bishop's own letters.

G. M. GORDON.

"Quettah, Monday, March 8. I reached this after an early march yesterday at 8 a.m., having pledged myself for services at 11.30 and 5, which I thank God I was able to accomplish-150 miles in six days and a bit is pretty well at my age. A soldier and a clerk came to me this morning to beg me to have the Lord's Supper with them, as they were not able to come yesterday through press of work. I felt much refreshed by their joy in God's services, and soon had my table-cloth and vessels ready for them. I consecrated the cemetery here this morning, being up early to mark out the limits of the Church of England, Roman Catholic, and Nonconformist portions. I got the colonel to take part, the same I wrote to about Church. I have had hard letter-writing to-day on various business matters which will find their way after me, oozing through the strata of distance. I have got one hundred miles for the next five days, then a Sunday at Sibi (if possible), where the rail begins.... I met officers every day along the line of march, and got several little services and pleasant ones.'

To-day we marched about eighteen miles through the lower parts of the Bolan Pass. My four mules do all the carrying work very well. I have a table with me (folding up)—a stool made of reeds; a basket called a lunch-basket for tea, sugar, biscuits, condensed milk (for fresh milk is seldom to be had), butter in a canister from England, a little jam (when not used up as mine is now), salt and pepper, and all the little etceteras of a march. Then I have a plain lamp for candles, a tin or copper basin (which I bought in the bazaar at Candahar lately, as I used Mr. Gordon's before), a little Gladstone case for papers and correspondence, a trunk or two, and three bags, with a bundle of bedding and a rope bedstead. The bedding consists of a wax cloth to cover all, a felt rug such as the Pathans use, and a couple of quilts with a horse rug. With all this one is very independent, especially when I can borrow a nice tent with a double fly, or kănat as here they are called. Then my

THE AFGHAN WAR-MEDAL

21

servant has two wicker baskets for cooking utensils and his own bundle of bedding. On these frontier journeys Government supplies to servants some meal and pulse daily, with a little butter and salt; and to the horses some grain and grass, or chopped straw. In the way to-day I met a whole population performing their annual migration, like swallows, from the plains (where they spend the winter to avoid the snows and cold of the Khorassanee hills, and to feed their flocks) back again to the hills, now that the snow is melted; so that the whole people have got two homes, one for the winter and one for the summer. Isn't that clever of them? It is an amusing sight to see them wading across the Bolan streams-men, women, and children, all on foot, and barefooted except the very old and very little; all their worldly goods on camels, donkeys, bullocks, or their own backs; driving their flocks and herds before them, the dogs running beside them. The lambs are very numerous, and could scarcely be a week old most of them. The very little lambs are put on camels and donkeys, their bags and black tents making a flat surface. I saw six lambs on one camel, and a dear little girl seated at top nursing one of them, quite a scene for a painter to describe. Their tents have pretty curtains to them, and even their bags or sacks are adorned with kowrie shells or white stones. They are Brahooies, a tribe of Beloochis, so I do not know their language at all.

'Sukkur, Monday, March 15. I was very thankful to have been led to choose Sibi. My second horse had to be given up at the last stage on Friday night, as Major W. arrived at the haltingplace quite late from England and claimed his horse. My own (with a few miles' walk) brought me into Sibi at 11.30 on Saturday, and I arranged for services next day. General Burrows is in command, and was at the Holy Communion with five others. I have two addresses and another engagement at Multan, and may hope to reach you on Friday evening. I am sure you will thank God for bringing me in safety through this journey, bronzed rather but nothing worse.'

For his services on this occasion the bishop became entitled to the Afghan war-medal (not, as has been erroneously stated, a sword of honour), and from time to time at distributions of school medals and prizes he would allude smilingly to himself as being a recent medallist also. He heard of the award in the spring of 1882, and wrote to Mrs. French :

:

'It was so curious you should be the first to tell me I had been presented with the war medal. I found it was known by some of the officers on Saturday evening at the great gathering at Government House. I cannot think to whom I am indebted for saying