ignifies a cousin to any
degree, and is not unfrequently used as 'enemy,' the inference being
that in Afghanistan a cousin is necessarily an enemy.]

[Footnote 2: As I reported at the time, the magnitude of Sher
Ali's military preparations was, in my opinion, a fact of peculiar
significance. He had raised and equipped with arms of precision
sixteen regiments of Cavalry and sixty-eight of Infantry, while his
Artillery amounted to nearly 300 guns. Numbers of skilled artisans
were constantly employed in the manufacture of rifled cannon and
breech-loading small arms. Swords, helmets, uniforms, and other
articles of military equipment, were stored in proportionate
quantities. Upon the construction of the Sherpur cantonment Sher Ali
had expended an astonishing amount of labour and money. The size and
cost of this work may be judged from the fact that the main line of
rampart, with barrack accommodation, extended to a length of nearly
two miles under the western and southern slopes of the Bimaru hills,
while the original design was to carry the wall entirely round the
hills, a distance of four and a half miles, and the foundations were
laid for a considerable portion of this length. All these military
preparations must have been going on for some years, and were quite
unnecessary, except as a provision for contemplated hostilities with
ourselves. Sher Ali had refused during this time to accept the subsidy
we had agreed to pay him, and it is difficult to understand how their
entire cost could have been met from the Afghan treasury, the annual
gross revenue of the country at that time amounting only to about 80
lakhs of rupees.]

[Footnote 3: These letters, as well as my report to the Secretary to
the Government of India in the Foreign Department, with an account of
my conversation with Yakub Khan, are given in the Appendix.]

[Footnote 4: Sirdar Ayub Khan was Governor of Herat in 1879.]

[Footnote 5: There were present at the interview, besides myself,
Colonel Macgregor, Major Hastings, Surgeon-Major Bellew, Nawab Sir
Ghulam Hussein Khan, and Mr. H.M. Durand.]

[Footnote 6: A kind of mantle worn by Afghans.]

[Footnote 7: As Yakub Khan refused under one pretext or another to
deliver up any money, Major Moriarty, the officer in charge of the
Kabul Field Force treasure-chest, and Lieutenant Neville Chamberlain,
accompanied by an escort, searched a house in the city in which a
portion of Yakub Khan's money was said to be co