A land march from England to Ceylon Forty Years Ago Mitford Volume 2 1884 W H Allen Rating: Great Read Mitford was travelling on horseback from England through the Balkans, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Iran and then onto Afghanistan. He seemed to be a nineteenth century Rory Stewart type but covering many more places in between. In Meshed he meets a German who had been in the service of Kamran, the Shah of Herat, but fell out with the Wazir who forced him out of Herat. Mitford makes an interesting remark that unlike most such Europeans in the service of Muslim powers this man had not converted. From Meshed Mitford makes his way to Herat and there is much material on the powerlessness of the Saddozai Shah who is not permitted to leave the citadel and is given enough booze to keep him drunk and the Wazir, Yar Mahomeds sticky hands on the levers of power. From Herat, Mitford travels down to the fort at Girishk where he spends the night and then makes his way to Kandahar via Zemindawar. At Zemindawar, his aide spots the people having a meeting discussing exterminating the Brit who has fallen into their laps, so he leaves with his servants after enjoying a lavish meal at the expense of his hosts, who had hoped that he would stay the night, when they could finish him off with ease. Mitford then leaves Kandahar via Baluchistan with British forces returning to India. In all, Mitford spent at most two months in Kandahar. However, it is interesting that the same resentments about Brits taking peoples wives was present in Kandahar, just as was the case in Kabul. Mitford was at Kandahar from 20 Nov 1840 to 7 Dec 1840 and made the following observations: Hindoos are numerous; they are shop keepers and traders. When the army marched up to Kandahar, these speculators had bought up all the grain in the country at the rate of fifteen or twenty pounds for the rupee of two shillings, hoarding it up till the arrival of the troops, when of course there was a dearth in the camp, and the political authorities with the force consented to pay for it at the rate of one shilling per pound. I am sorry to say that a great deal of ill -feeling in the minds of the natives towards us has been generated by the unrestrained license of some of our own people... It was a common complaint, and I was much struck by a remark which was made by a respectable man in the town: You Feringis are not content with taking our country, our towns and our property, but you do not even leave us our wives. Relations between those Afghans assisting the British and Shuja were not ones based on trust, I saw here the Sirdar of the Province of Kandahar, who had come to the town at the request of the Political Agent (Lynch); he was a gentlemanly looking man, with a long white beard and well dressed, but very suspicious; he had brought a friend or two with him, who remained outside outside during the interview, and all the time it lasted he was continually looking to the door, either to make his escape of under the dread of being seized...I saw another extraordinary character in the service of Major Lynch; he was a Ghilzye, and had been a robber and highwayman, before our occupation; he pretended that he was not safe from the friends of people he had murdered, if he was recognised, and was living under our protection...whilst he was talking he detected me taking his likeness, and immediately got up in the greatest alarm, saying we were going to send his picture to the Envoy to have him hung...we had some difficulty in pacifying the old villain. Mitford took a dim view about the new order of the Dooranee Empire...is one of the greatest national absurdities...In the first place, no Dooranee Empire exists, and as the present Shah is only a tool in our hands, no honours can emanate from him; again what can be more absurd than for a Mohammedan Prince to confer Crosses on British officer as a reward for serving their own country. Furthermore, the hypocrisy of the recipients of the reward was also exposed, although everyone abused it and affected to condemn it, no one refused it when it was offered.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:22:51 +0000
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