I have, however, the Koran and sword from Kelat; and I
think I shall be able to get a matchlock taken at that place,--a very
good specimen of the sort of thing I was wounded by; perhaps it may be
the identical one. The sword I left in Cutch, in my way up from
Mandavie, to be put to rights, as the workmen of that country are the
best in India, I will try if I can get another weapon, as a remembrance
of Ghuzni. I brought down from Cabool as far as Quettah a very good
specimen of the Kyber knife, a very cut-throat sort of instrument, with
which every Afghan is armed. I sent it down with my other things through
the Bolan Pass, when we turned off to Kelat, and I am sorry to say it
was stolen.
You write about old ----: did I never mention him to you? He is here;
but was not with us on the campaign, being too unwell when we started.
Though not an old man, he is a very old soldier for an Indian, and is
nearly worn out: he is anxious to get his discharge at the end of the
year, when he will have served his twenty-one years, and be entitled to
a decent pension. He is a very straight-forward, blunt, honest old
fellow, and when he first joined was a very powerful man, and the best
wrestler in the regiment, thereby proving his South Devon blood.
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