immediate
steps for the relief of Chitral at the earliest possible moment, as it
was known that that place was only supplied till the end of April. It
was impossible to send troops from India to Gilgit for this purpose, as
the passes would not be open till June. Most fortunately a force of the
32nd Pioneers, under Colonel Kelly, were at this time road-making at
Bunji, on the Indus, only 38 miles from Gilgit; it was therefore
determined to send Colonel Kelly with all the men he could collect to
march as rapidly as possible to Chitral. On the 21st of March Colonel
Kelly received orders by telegraph to march, and he set off the same
afternoon. And a famous march it was!

On the 23rd of March the expedition set out from Gilgit. It consisted
at starting of 400 men of the Pioneers, two guns of Number 1 Kashmir
Mountain Battery, and 100 Hunza and Puniali Levies under their own
chiefs; the officers with Colonel Kelly being Captain Borrodaile,
Surgeon-Captain Browning-Smith, and Lieutenants Beynon, Bethune, Cobbe,
Paterson, and Cooke; and these were joined at Gupis by Lieutenant
Stewart, R.A., who took charge of the guns, and Lieutenant Oldham, R.E.,
with 40 Kashmir Sappers, and Lieutenant Gough with 100 Kashmir Rifles.
It will be noticed that again the troops and non-commissioned officers
were entirely native.

On April the 1st, in spite of five days' snow, the column set out from
Ghizr to attempt the Shandur Pass. The first difficulty was a stampede
of the impressed native bearers, who had bolted in the night and were
not collected again till late in the afternoon. After a few miles the
guns stuck in the deep snow, and it was found impossible to get them
along. Captain Borrodaile, with Lieutenant Oldham and 140 men, with the
Hunza Levies, remained at Teru with provision for ten days. The rest of
the column with the guns had reluctantly to return to Ghizr. The snow
continuing, it was impossible to attempt the pass; but the Kashmirs set
to work to dig a road from Teru through the snow to Langar, the
camping-ground on their side of the pass, and on the next day the guns
were got along to Teru and thence to Langar, but this was only effected
by _carrying_ the guns, carriages, and ammunition. These were divided
amongst squads of four men, relieved every fifty yards, so that the
progress did not exceed a mile an hour, the men being often up to their
middle in snow in a bitter wind and a glaring sun. The camping-ground