bar Khan's reach and
put himself under the protection of General Pollock. Akbar Khan now wrote
to General Pollock, offering to deliver up his British prisoners and
hostages if he would withdraw from Afghanistan. Lord Ellenborough showed
himself inclined to accept this proposition. The British officers at the
front were furious. General Pollock wrote to Nott at Kandahar not to move
until further instructions, while he himself reported to headquarters that
he could not retire to Jellalabad for want of transports. Eventually, Lord
Ellenborough consented to modify his instructions. Without waiting for
this, General Nott was already marching on Kabul. Pollock, accompanied by
Sale, left Jellalabad to support Nott's advance. In the Tezeen Valley the
British came upon the scene of one of the bloodiest massacres of the
retreat from Kabul. The sight of the murdered bodies of their comrades
exasperated the soldiers. The heights around were bristling with Akbar
Khan's men. In the face of a murderous fire from their matchlocks, the
British stormed the heights and gave no quarter. Akbar Khan fled into the
northern hills. In September, Nott's column took Kabul and hoisted the
British flag over the Bala Hassar. The English captives managed to bribe
their keepers and to join the rescuing army, amid general rejoicings. The
British conquest of Afghanistan was followed by barbarous deeds of
vandalism. The great bazaar of Kabul, one of the handsomest stone
structures of Central Asia, was blown up by gunpowder. The city itself was
turned over to loot and massacre. The bloodcurdling atrocities of the white
men on that occasion kept alive the fierce hatred of all things British in
Afghanistan for years to come. By the express orders of Lord Ellenborough
the sacred sandalwood gates of Somnath, which had adorned the tomb of
Mahmud of Ghasni since the Eleventh Century, were brought away as trophies
of war.

[Sidenote: Boers driven from Natal]

[Sidenote: Foundation of Transvaal]

In South Africa, too, the seeds of enduring hatred were sown at this time.
Scarcely had the new Boer community in Zululand become well settled when a
proclamation was issued in Cape Town, declaring that Natal should become a
British territory. Soldiers were despatched to Durban to support this
claim. After some sharp fighting the Boers were driven out of the seaport.
When the British Commissioner arrived at Pietermaritzburg, a stormy mass
meeting was held. For two hour