allow it. Seven or eight men were, however, taken up, though nothing
certain has been proved. They are still in chains in the town; what will
be done with them I don't know. I always have my holster pipes, and
pistols loaded, whenever I ride out, as there is nothing like being
prepared.

I have little to say of Candahar, which appears to me to be just the
same as every other town I have seen in the East, very dirty, &c. It
stands in a tolerably fertile plain, with hills scattered all round it.
It is a perfect square, each side of which is nearly a mile in length;
two streets, one from north to south, the other from east to west, run
through it, and bisect each other in the centre: in these are the
different bazaars. The rest of the town, as it appeared to me as I rode
round the walls the other day, is perfectly deserted. There are double
walls to the town, entire all the way round, but I should think it could
be easily taken. A great number of the inhabitants have left it on
account of the dearness of provisions, occasioned by the hungry mouths
of so large a force as ours, and also because, on his first arrival, the
Shah wished to play some of his old arbitrary acts over again.

The Ghiljees have been at their old tricks lately, robbing some supplies
for the army, which came up by the Bolan Pass about a week ago, and
which they followed nearly into our camp. The caravan, however, was
under the charge of a right sort of fellow, the Rajah of Buhawulpoor,
who was bringing up a contingent to the Shah's force, and if any of his
camels were taken away he took two for one from the first village he
arrived at. The Ghiljees got more bold afterwards, and actually
endeavoured to walk off with the camels of the Bengal army, and five or
six were taken prisoners by some Sepoys, and one blown from a gun in the
town. They, however, killed one, and severely wounded two other unarmed
soldiers of H.M. 13th Light Infantry, who were out with the camels of
their regiment, the guard for the camels having very quietly gone to
sleep in a house. The poor fellows made a desperate fight, defending
themselves with their shoes; and one of them pulled a mounted Ghiljee
off his horse, but had his arm cut through before he could get the
fellow's sword from him: they lost a great many camels.

_June 29th_.--Well, to-morrow we are off for Cabool; I hope the country
may improve as we advance. Everybody speaks very highly of Cabool
itself--a fine clima