te, 6000 feet above the sea. It has been very hot
the whole time we have been here. They say there is plenty of grain to
be had on the road; I hope this may be true, and that we shall not have
a repetition of what took place before in regard to expense. I was
congratulating myself, a day or two since, on the prospect of getting my
back pay, but now I hear that I shall not only be minus that, but that
we are not to get any more pay for three months, owing to some
mismanagement or other; consequently, we shall be obliged to get into
debt, with a nice little interest to pay off. I wish, therefore, that
next year you would give me credit for another 60l. I do not wish you
to send it out to me, but that you would let me draw upon you as far as
that sum, in case I should find it necessary, as this campaign has sadly
crippled me. Your last 60l. is nearly gone, and yet I have not spent a
farthing that I could help: this irregular way of paying troops is very
disgusting to them.

The report is now that we are not likely to have any regular fighting,
as it is pretty generally believed that Dost Mahomed has agreed to our
terms; the "on dit" is, that he is at Peshawur, and awaits our arrival
in Cabool, to give himself up to the British government. Colonel Wade,
one of the political diplomatic line, is near Peshawur with a part of
Runjet's army, but Dost Mahomed will not surrender himself to him, nor
will Colonel Wade cross the Punjab frontiers, on account of the great
enmity which exists between the Afghans and Sikhs: however, all this is
to be proved. I wish we could have one good brush with them, as we
should then have plain sailing; as it is, I suppose we shall be annoyed
by these rascally Ghiljees all the way up: out-lying pickets to take
care of camels, &c. With regard to the climate of this country I can say
little, as we have only been here during the hot weather, and hot we
have found it with a vengeance; but then we have been living in tents.
One man of ours has died by a coup de soleil; he was one of the camel
guard. I do not consider the climate an unhealthy one. It is a very
lucky thing for us that we were not left in Sinde: the troops left there
have suffered terribly. Sinde is one of the hottest places in the
world, and very unhealthy; in fact, I consider it to be about one of the
most disgusting countries in the world. The 17th regiment lost an
officer there under very melancholy circumstances. He was coming up to
jo