ly no roads, have only prevented our moving as
rapidly as we might otherwise have done.

For the equipment of the force, inclusive of carriage for footsore
soldiers[11] and followers, and allowing ten per cent. spare, more
than 8,000[12] animals were required.

Fortunately, it turned out that a fair amount of Indian corn in the
ear was almost everywhere procurable, which was so nutritious that a
large majority of the Cavalry horses and transport animals reached
Kandahar in excellent condition.

Throughout the march great difficulties were experienced in procuring
food, but they were always overcome, with the able assistance of Major
Hastings and his political staff,[13] and by means of the admirable
arrangements made by the Commissariat[14] and Transport[15] officers,
who were quite untiring, and after the longest march, and with the
prospect of having to start again at an early hour the following
morning, had often to work far into the night.

The want of fuel was our chief drawback. We had on many occasions to
purchase houses and pull them to pieces for the sake of the wood to be
got out of them, and frequently there was nothing to cook with save
tiny roots of southernwood, which had to be dug out and collected
after a long day's march before the men could prepare their food and
satisfy their hunger.

One day's corn was carried by each animal in addition to the ordinary
load, and as far as Ghazni grain was tolerably plentiful; beyond that
we had to depend for forage on the crops still standing. At the end of
the day's march, certain fields were told off to the several brigades;
from these all that was required was cut and carried away, the fields
were then measured and assessed, and compensation was awarded by the
political officers, who also adjusted all claims on account of wrecked
houses, and fruit, vegetables, etc., brought in for the troops.

On Sunday, the 8th August, the force moved into camp by brigades, my
Head-Quarters being with the first and third Infantry brigades at
Beni Hissar, on the way to the Logar valley, which route I had chosen
instead of the slightly shorter line by Maidan, on account of the
greater facility it afforded for supplies.

Sir Donald Stewart paid us a farewell visit in the afternoon, and at 6
a.m. the following morning we began the march to Kandahar.

[Footnote 1: Sirdar Sher Ali had been appointed Governor of Kandahar
by the Amir Yakub Khan after the treaty of Gandamak, an