Page:The Earl of Auckland.djvu/88

82 northern end of the Shál Valley, 'a most miserable mud town' — says Havelock — 'with a small castle on a mound,' which held 'one small gun on a rickety carriage.' Here, at a height of 5,000 feet above the sea, our weary half-starved soldiers had to wait for orders from Keane, who had not yet reached Dádar; while Burnes was trying to squeeze impossible supplies out of the bewildered ruler of Khelát. Robbed of their blankets and reduced to half-rations, the troops were now suffering as much from cold, with a temperature ranging from 30° to 60°, as they had lately suffered from the fierce heat.

On the 6th of April Keane himself arriving at Quetta some days in advance of the Bombay column, took over the chief command of the force there assembled. With a total loss of 20,000 camels, many horses and bullocks, a great deal of baggage and many hundred camp-followers, the Army of the Indus found itself ill prepared for the real business of a campaign which Auckland's secretaries had talked of as a military promenade. The country around was gay with fruit-trees in full bloom, but the scant supplies of food in the Shál Valley were nearly exhausted, and the Khán of Khelát, whose domains yielded very little grain and only a few thousand sheep, could not fill up the void in our commissariat stores. Nothing remained for Keane but to push on at all risks over the Khojak towards Kandahár. There was no time to lose, if a