Those around them were slain to a man, and the main body dispersed in every direction.

With some difficulty I kept my party together, and withdrew to the hills, showing so bold a front to the Sikhs that they did not dare to follow us far. The Eusafzai mountain - passes always gave the Sikhs cholera, as Avitabile1 used to say.

I was literally within a few hundred yards of the Syad when he fell, but I did not see the angel descend and carry him off to Paradise, although many of his followers remembered afterwards that they had seen it distinctly enough.

I remained two nights at Panchthar, where I rested my men after their exertions, and divided the booty between them. The death of the Syad broke the only link that held his followers together, and in the retreat many of the parties from different regions fell upon one another for plunder. My Khaibaris and Eusafzais were equal to the best in this matter, and cut down several of the Hindustani fanatics 2 who had joined them for protection,

1 General Avitabile, Ranjit Singh's Italian governor of the Peshawar district. See Appendix.

2 The Hindustani fanatics were the Indian followers of Syad Ahmad. Their descendants give trouble to the present day, and took a prominent part in the recent Frontier war.

GARDNER CONCEALS HIS WRITINGS.

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and whose clothing or equipment seemed to them a desirable acquisition.

Having rested my men, and given leave to my faithful Khaibaris to return to their homes, I returned to Bajaur, where I was kindly welcomed by Mir Alam Khan. It was while in comparative ease and security, and habited as a Mussulman, at Bajaur, that I managed to jot down the rough records of my wanderings. As a devout man I carried the Koran suspended from my neck, and in its leaves I deposited my scraps. After a time the holy book got so bulky that I had to devote my tobacco-pouch as a receptacle for my writings. No one would ever touch the Koran of a neighbour, and had any interference been attempted or suspicions aroused, I should have represented my scraps as additional prayers.

My stay at Bajaur was not a long one, as during the summer I received an invitation from Sultan Muhammad Khan1 to enter his service as chief of artillery. This prince had been reinstated as governor of Peshawar when, as I have related, Maharaja Ranjit Singh came to his assistance in the previous year. Sultan Muhammad Khan took

1 Brother and enemy of Dost Muhammad Khan.

great interest in artillery, but I taught him all that he knew about the subject.

Gardner's travels had now come to an end. Except for the period of his imprisonment at Girishk, he had been constantly on the move since his final departure from Astrakhan in February 1823, a period of eight and a half years.

Few men have undergone such perils and have travelled such long distances through unknown countries.