aginary bastions and
parapets it seemed easy to hurl down destruction and death on the
passenger, and he may easily imagine that our feelings were not of the
liveliest or most comfortable nature. A handful of men could have
effectually stopped our progress had there been but another Leonidas
amongst the wild inhabitants of this magnificent defile, whose military
skill and resolution would have enabled him to seize upon, and maintain
its many points of defence. We could not conceal from ourselves
difficulties so apparent, and a general and undefined feeling of
uneasiness pervaded us all. We felt that if the enemy had any intention
of resisting us they would not lose opportunities which nature herself
appeared to indicate; and it was but too obvious that if they only knew
how to avail themselves of the formidable barriers which she had placed
against invasion, our situation would become critical in the extreme.
Once involved in the intricacies of the Pass, the superior knowledge of
the country possessed by the natives, and their familiarity with
mountain warfare would enable them to harrass us at every step, and a
well planned and daring attack might at once overwhelm us. Such were the
reflections that suggested themselves to almost every man's mind, and
many there were, I dare say, who just then thought of home, and
speculated whether it would ever be his lot to revisit its peaceful
fireside, and recount the dangers of which he had been the hero.

The Bengal troops who preceded us through the Pass left behind them sad
proofs of the justice of some of these conclusions. We found from five
and twenty to thirty camp followers lying dead upon their track, the
throats of several having been cut, and the others bearing on their
mutilated persons the unequivocal evidence of a desperate hand to hand
struggle. As we advanced through the gorge we could observe the
Belochees peering at us over the jutting points of the precipices, and
the sharp report of their gingalls and matchlocks, which, luckily for
us, were not very sure in their aim, usually followed the brief
inspection by which we were favoured. Observing a camp follower leading
a camel at some distance in the rear, three of the mountaineers suddenly
darted from a fissure in the rock in which they had lain concealed, and
having cut the poor fellow down, led the animal up the ascent by one of
those diverging tracks like sheep walks, with which these hills abound.
A serjeant