it need cause us no surprise to learn that the condition of the travellers proceeded from bad to worse. Unheedingly they passed the famous lapis-lazuli mines; historic cities were to them but the strongholds of oppression, and, as such, to be avoided.

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Food," says Gardner, "we obtained by levying contributions from every one we could master, but we did not slaughter unless in self-defence."

When near Kunduz, it should be said, they had again been compelled to kill a party of three armed men, who declared that Gardner's party were themselves the robbers whom they professed to be pursuing, and threatened to take them before the ruler of the province.

A guilty conscience is certainly suggested by the following passage, which immediately follows that quoted above: "On coming near Inder - ab (or Anderab) we halted for two days, to rest our wearied bones. We told the same story to all we met, saying, 'Have you seen any robbers? We are in pursuit of a band."" To this query Gardner says they invariably received the response, “You will find them in Bolor." We shall henceforth become familiar with this name under various forms.

The borders of Afghanistan were at length

RIVAL CLAIMANTS.

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reached, but the path to safety and employment under Dost Muhammad Khan was by no means clear.

The reader will be reminded in the next chapter how it was that Dost Muhammad Khan came to be Amir of Kabul, and must further understand that at the time of Gardner's arrival in the Inder-ab valley, that region and the Kohistan (or mountain country to the north of Kabul) was in possession of a rival claimant to the throne. This claimant was Prince Habib-ulla Khan, son of the deceased elder brother of Dost Muhammad Khan. Habib-ulla Khan had for a short time been recognised as ruler of Kabul, but had now been dispossessed by his uncle.

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CHAPTER V.

A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE AMONG THE AFGHANS.

THE KINGDOM OF AFGHANISTAN-HABIB-ULLA KHAN AND HIS HISTORY-GARDNER JOINS HIS STANDARD AND BECOMES A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE-AFGHAN TOLLS-THE ROMANCE OF WAR-GARDNER'S MARRIAGE - THE CASTELLO TRIUMPH OF AMIR DOST MUHAMMAD KHAN-TRAGIC END OF GARDNER'S MARRIED LIFE -HABIB-ULLA KHAN'S RESOLUTION.

THE kingdom of Afghanistan dates only from the year 1747, when Ahmad Khan, hereditary chief of the Sadozai tribe, was crowned King of the Afghans at Kandahar. Ahmad Khan changed the name of his tribe to Durani, and assumed the title of Shah Duri Duran. After a glorious career of conquest he died in June 1773.

Ahmad Shah Durani was succeeded by his son Taimur, who reigned twenty years, and was succeeded by his son Shah Zaman, who was blinded and deposed in the year 1799. Shah Zaman's brother and successor, Mahmud Shah, had no

strength of character, and in July 1803 was set aside in favour of Shah Shujah, another brother.

The vicissitudes undergone by this unfortunate monarch are well known, and had resulted in his exile in the year 1811, when the greater part of Afghanistan fell under the dominion of another great clan the Barakzai-of which Dost Muhammad Khan eventually became the chief. In 1839 the British placed Shah Shujah once more on the throne of Afghanistan, but as soon as the protection of that Power ceased, in April 1842, Shah Shujah was murdered.

His son and successor, Fathi Jang, shared the same fate a few months later, and Dost Muhammad resumed the power whieh he alone could wield effectively. His family has ever since reigned in Afghanistan.

The people of Afghanistan are indifferently called Afghans and Pathans. The former name is by some writers said to indicate the turbulent nature of the people (fighan meaning lamentation) -the same Persian word fighan means in another sense "idols," and may therefore imply a nation of idolators.

The name "Pathan" is said by Colonel Malleson to embody the idea of strength. "Pashtun" or

"Pukhtun," yet another name of the nation, is said to mean "dwellers in hills."

Gardner and his companions had, of course, no knowledge of Afghan politics, and little anticipated the events which were about to frustrate their intention of seeking employment under Dost Muhammad. Gardner's account of his campaign under Prince Habib-ulla Khan is so spirited, and fortunately so complete, that it follows entirely in his own words.

The history of the internecine struggle between Dost Muhammad Khan and the various members of his family for the throne of Afghanistan has been very incompletely told by historians. The record of the Kohistan campaign, as related in the following pages by Gardner, is therefore valuable as well as interesting.

The happy audacity and confidence displayed by the adventurer on the occasion of his falling in with Habibulla Khan throw full light on his character, and enable us to understand how it was that dangers vanished from before him.

At last (says the traveller) we came upon an outpost of the Kohistan region of the Kabul country, and were stopped by a mounted guard.