nd murdered, near the camp.

A.H. HOLDSWORTH.

LETTER X.

Camp at Kotree, in Cutch Gundava,
December 8th, 1839.

MY DEAR FATHER--As I am now tolerably recovered and my wounds nearly
healed, I take the first opportunity (as my arm is losing its stiffness)
of writing to you, as I have no doubt you will be very anxious to hear
how I am going on. I desired Stisted, the day after the taking of Kelat,
to write, as I was myself then unable. I have no doubt but that he did
so; yet I know you must have been anxious before you heard the final
result; and I am now happy to inform you that I am getting rapidly well,
and expect in a short time to be out of the "sick list." My wound was
esteemed a rather ugly one at first; and I must consider it one of the
most fortunate cases of Providence that the bullet took the direction it
did, as had it swerved in the least degree it must have gone through my
lungs, or downward through my liver; and in either case would most
likely have done my business completely. As the man who fired at me was
so very close, the ball went clear through, and so saved me from the
unpleasant process of having it extracted by the doctor, &c. I had my
right flank exposed to the man who pinked me, and so the ball passed
through my right arm into my right side, and passing downwards to the
rear, came out at my back, about an inch from the back-bone. Had it
passed to the front instead of to the rear, I should have most assuredly
left my bones at Kelat: as it was, from my coughing up a tolerable
quantity of blood when I was first hit, the doctor imagined that my
lungs had been affected, and for a couple of days, as I have since
heard, was very doubtful as to my eventual recovery. However I may now,
I believe, consider myself completely out of the wood.

I find I have not written since the last day I was at Cabool; and I have
had few opportunities of doing so, as we have been on the move ever
since, and until we reached Kelat there was very little to write about.
We broke ground and marched to the other side of Cabool on Monday, the
16th of September, and halted on the 17th for a grand tomasha at the
Bala Hissar, or Shah's Palace, being no less than the investiture of the
order of the Doorannee Pearl, which was conferred by Shah Shooja on the
big-wigs of the army. Sir John Keane, Sir Willoughby Cotton, and Mr.
Macnaghten get the first order; generals of divisions and brigadiers,
the second; and all