be far short of
the interest of the money which has been expended in his commissions and
education, and with fifteen lieutenants still above him on the roll of
his regiment.

It will be seen by his letters, and it is confirmed by the official
despatches of the Commander-in-chief, that the company to which he was
attached (the light company of the Queen's) led the storming party at
Ghuzni. He was shot through the arm and through the body, and left for
dead at the foot of the citadel at Kelat, whilst endeavouring to save
the lives of some Beloochees who were crying for mercy. And for these
services he is to be rewarded with a medal, by Shah Shooja; for Ghuzni,
and for the capture of both places he has the full enjoyment of the
highest gratification that a soldier can feel--the consciousness that he
has done his duty to his country, and, let me hope, in the act of mercy
in which he suffered, his duty to his God as a Christian. But he is not
a solitary example of such good fortune. No one who was wounded and
survived may have been nearer death than himself, yet are there others
who have done more, and suffered more, as the history of the army of
the Indus would bear ample testimony.

Let me then ask, in behalf of the British officer, when he is lightly
spoken of as a man, or when the expenses of the army are cavilled at, on
which side is the debt--on his, or on that of his country?

A.H. HOLDSWORTH.

_Brookhill,--May, 1840._

[Illustration] It may be right to draw the attention of the reader to a
circumstance which, at first sight, may appear singular--that the same
letters frequently contain reports quite contradictory to each other. It
should therefore be borne in mind that such letters were probably
written at different times, as the writer found opportunity; who, being
anxious that his family should know all that passed as well in the camp
as in the field, preferred leaving each report in the way in which it
was circulated at the time of his writing it, rather than correct it
afterwards, as the truth, might turn out. Such letters shew the
situation in which an army is placed on its landing in a new country,
where no account of the movements of the inhabitants can be relied upon,
and the heavy responsibility which attaches to the officers who are
entrusted with its command.

CAMPAIGN OF THE INDUS.

* * * * *

LETTER I

On board the ship Syden,
Off the mouth