ncealed. Upwards of
eight and a half lakhs of rupees, and a certain amount of jewellery
and gold coins, tillas and Russian five-rouble pieces, in all
amounting to nine and a half lakhs, were found. This sum was
subsequently refunded to the Afghan Government.]

[Footnote 8: The Nawab had been made a K.C.S.I.]

* * * * *

CHAPTER LIV.
1879

The amnesty Proclamation--Strength of the Kabul Field Force
--Yakub Khan despatched to India

On the 1st November my Head-Quarters and the 1st division moved into
Sherpur, which the Engineers had prepared for winter quarters, and
where stores of provisions and forage were assuming satisfactory
proportions. The same day Brigadier-General Macpherson left Kabul with
a brigade of about 1,800 men and four guns to join hands with the
troops which I had lately heard were advancing from the Khyber, and
had reached Gandamak. I joined Macpherson the following morning at
Butkhak, about eleven miles from Kabul, where our first post towards
the Khyber had already been established. It was very important that
our communication with India should be by a route good enough for
wheeled carriages; I was therefore anxious to see for myself if it
were not possible to avoid the Khurd-Kabul Pass, which was said to be
very difficult. I had, besides, a strong wish to visit this pass, as
being the scene of Sir Robert Sale's fight with the tribesmen in
1841, and of the beginning of the massacre of General Elphinstone's
unfortunate troops in 1842.[1] The Afghan Commander-in-Chief, Daud
Shah, and several Ghilzai Chiefs, accompanied me; from them I learned
that an easier road did exist, running more to the east, and crossing
over the Lataband mountain. Personal inspection of the two lines
proved that Daud Shah's estimate of their respective difficulties
was correct; the Lataband route was comparatively easy, there was no
defile as on the Khurd-Kabul side, and the kotal, 8,000 feet above the
sea, was reached by a gradual ascent from Butkhak. However, I found
the Khurd-Kabul much less difficult than I had imagined it to be; it
might have been made passable for carts, but there was no object in
using it, as the Lataband route possessed the additional advantage
of being some miles shorter; accordingly I decided upon adopting the
latter as the line of communication with India.

Macpherson reported that the country beyond Khurd-Kabul was fairly
settled, and that, on the