d the Artillery to unlimber their guns and drag them
down the precipice, a task, as the reader may conceive, of no small
labour and difficulty. About half way down, a camel, laden with camp
equipage, missed its footing and was precipitated into the abyss with
its conductor, and both were of course, immediately dashed to pieces.
We reached the plain without any further mishap about six o'clock the
same evening, and had every reason to congratulate ourselves that the
cowardice or negligence of the enemy had prevented them from disputing
our passage.

Having halted at the bottom of the Pass two days so as to enable the
remainder of the heavy ordnance and baggage to descend we proceeded
towards Candahar. The enemy occasionally made their appearance, and
though not caring to face us in the field, continued to harass us
severely by hanging on our rear, and cutting off the stragglers. Nor did
they abate in the least in their love of thieving, robberies being just
as frequent, and characterised by as much ingenuity and daring as ever.
Late one night I was on sentry before the tent of Lieutenant Kemp when a
rustling noise attracted my notice; on looking attentively towards the
spot from whence it proceeded, I perceived an Affghan crawling towards
the tent on his hands and knees, and suffering him to enter, in order
the more easily to secure him, I surprised him as he was in the act of
plundering it. The fellow was completely naked, and on my attempting to
lay hold of him he slipped through my fingers like an eel, owing to the
quantity of grease with which his person was smeared, and succeeded in
clearing the lines in safety. I did not shoot him because positive
orders had been issued against shots being fired in camp, which had
before given rise to many groundless alarms.

The weather now became excessively hot, the thermometer being 125
degrees in the shade, which rendered it necessary that we should
prosecute our way either in the cool of the morning or at night. The
nights were so beautiful that the latter could not be deemed a hardship,
and had the scenery been but equal to that through which we had just
passed, it could not have been seen to greater advantage than under
these clear delicious moonlights. Nothing, however, can be more flat or
uninteresting than the country between the Khojuck Pass and Candahar.
The only thing that might be said to have broken the monotony of the
route was an occasional shot which told the fa