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506 CHAPTER XXIX.

Unpopularity of Shah Sujah – Resistance of Mountain Chiefs – Commencement of War of Posts – Insurrection or the Ghiljie Tribe suppressed – Dost Mahommed defeated by Colonel Dennie – Shameful Conduct of the 2nd Bengal Cavalry – Their Punishment – Battle of Purwan – Defeat and Surrender of Dost Mahommed – Destruction of Lieutenant Clark's Detachment – Major Clibborn's ill-fated Expedition – His Troops storm the Pass of Nufoosk – Their dreadful Sufferings for want of Water – Disastrous Retreat, with Loss of Stores, Artillery, and Baggage – Conference with Beloochees – Successful Operations elsewhere of British Troops – Threatening Aspect of Affairs at Cabul – Cause of the Hostility of the Ghiljies – Sir Robert Sale clears he Khoord Cabul Pass and forces his way to Gundamuk – Arrival of Sir Robert Sale's Force at Jellalabad – He is ordered to Cabul – His Reasons for not going thither.

After the constitution of the "Army of the Indus" was thus formally dissolved, the interior of Affghanistan remained for a while in a state of precarious tranquillity; but troops have seldom been left in a more uncertain or more hazardous predicament than those who were left to secure Shah Sujah on his throne. In the month of January, 1840, there was a fall of snow nearly five feet deep, from which the pour Sepoys suffered cruelly; and even the British soldiers, who were but indifferently provided with clothes and blankets, shivered on those mountains and table lands.

Though all regular resistance had ceased, there were dear symptoms of the unpopularity of the new Government, and especially of its foreign supporters. The conduct of the Shah, too, as well as of his sons, is represented as neither prudent nor conciliatory. Officers and men found straggling were murdered; several of the mountain chiefs openly resisted, and not only refused to pay any taxes or tribute to Shah Sujah, but also refused to sell provisions to our Commissariat. As the ice and snow melted, and left the roads and mountain-paths passable,