DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.3909#0199
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complicity in the war, were hanged and women were dragged into captivity in order to fill the
Zananas of the Kashmir Sepoys. I saw the body of a tail, and powerfully built Dareyli, which
had evidently been hacked about a good deal, suspended on a tree by the way-side. It was said
to be the body of a man who was quietly returning to Sai, which had long been in the
undisturbed occupation of the Maharajah. A little further on near Jagloth [which is
also ia long-occupied territory | there is a bridge on one of the poles of which I saw the
skeleton head of a Lumberdar of the place, said to be perfectly innocent of all participation
in the war with Kashmir. The roofs of the houses in Gilgit had been blown off, and most
of the inhabitants had fled into the mountains {vide " dance "at Gilgit" page 31). On the
other hand, dreadful stories were related of the retaliation of the Dard tribes. Sepoys
had been sold by hundreds into Badakhshan, %c. ; others had been used as fireworks
and blown to atoms for the amusement of the Kunjutis. Personally, I found the Dards
pleasant enough and consider them to be superior in many respects to either Dogras or
Pathans, but it is by no means improbable that they have been guilty of many of the atrocities
which are laid to their charge. At the same time, it must be remembered that the wanton cruel-
ties of the Massacre of Yasin (vide page 66) and the fact that their country was invaded
by a stranger and an " infidel "—in defiance of treaty obligations—is some palliation for
their conduct. The Kashmir troops, and more particularly the coolies sent with them, were also
grossly neglected as regards food, clothing and shelter by their own authorities. It was said
that out of 12,(100 Kashmiris, impressed for the purpose of carrying loads, only 600 survived
in the expedition of 1866, The roads were strewn with the skeletons of hor?es, &c. I saw
men in the most emaciated condition and ready to eat " unlawful" food. Three Mussulmans
in a dying condition whom I met below the " Acho " summit, were ready to take a tin contain-
ing pork and could scarcely be restrained till "lawful" food was brought to them by my servants.
Men were forced to go with the troops. One Hakim Ali Shah, a teacher at Amritsar, was compelled
to serve as a physician, a post to which he had no other claim, except that his name happened to be
" Hakim." I rescued him. A virulent fever was destroying the troops at Gilgit, who, even after the
siege of the fort had been raised, were liable to be shot down by prowlers from the tribes within a
few yards of the fort. I ordered the fort, &e. to be cleaned and, although myself in danger
of lite from my Kashmir friends, if not from the tribes, I insisted on my orders being obeyed,
the assumption of an authoritative tone being often a traveller's only chance of safety among
Asiatics. I distributed medicine among the troops and was afterwards told in Durbar by the
Maharajah that some medicine which I had sent to Wazir Zoraweru, who was then on his
Bureyl expedition, had saved his life.
[ This peak overlooks BuDj'i and the whole course of the Indus, (with a sight of the Gilgit ralley,) from its sudden
southward bend at the Makpou-i-Sliang-Rong, till it again bends westward beyond Chilas.]
complicity in the war, were hanged and women were dragged into captivity in order to fill the
Zananas of the Kashmir Sepoys. I saw the body of a tail, and powerfully built Dareyli, which
had evidently been hacked about a good deal, suspended on a tree by the way-side. It was said
to be the body of a man who was quietly returning to Sai, which had long been in the
undisturbed occupation of the Maharajah. A little further on near Jagloth [which is
also ia long-occupied territory | there is a bridge on one of the poles of which I saw the
skeleton head of a Lumberdar of the place, said to be perfectly innocent of all participation
in the war with Kashmir. The roofs of the houses in Gilgit had been blown off, and most
of the inhabitants had fled into the mountains {vide " dance "at Gilgit" page 31). On the
other hand, dreadful stories were related of the retaliation of the Dard tribes. Sepoys
had been sold by hundreds into Badakhshan, %c. ; others had been used as fireworks
and blown to atoms for the amusement of the Kunjutis. Personally, I found the Dards
pleasant enough and consider them to be superior in many respects to either Dogras or
Pathans, but it is by no means improbable that they have been guilty of many of the atrocities
which are laid to their charge. At the same time, it must be remembered that the wanton cruel-
ties of the Massacre of Yasin (vide page 66) and the fact that their country was invaded
by a stranger and an " infidel "—in defiance of treaty obligations—is some palliation for
their conduct. The Kashmir troops, and more particularly the coolies sent with them, were also
grossly neglected as regards food, clothing and shelter by their own authorities. It was said
that out of 12,(100 Kashmiris, impressed for the purpose of carrying loads, only 600 survived
in the expedition of 1866, The roads were strewn with the skeletons of hor?es, &c. I saw
men in the most emaciated condition and ready to eat " unlawful" food. Three Mussulmans
in a dying condition whom I met below the " Acho " summit, were ready to take a tin contain-
ing pork and could scarcely be restrained till "lawful" food was brought to them by my servants.
Men were forced to go with the troops. One Hakim Ali Shah, a teacher at Amritsar, was compelled
to serve as a physician, a post to which he had no other claim, except that his name happened to be
" Hakim." I rescued him. A virulent fever was destroying the troops at Gilgit, who, even after the
siege of the fort had been raised, were liable to be shot down by prowlers from the tribes within a
few yards of the fort. I ordered the fort, &e. to be cleaned and, although myself in danger
of lite from my Kashmir friends, if not from the tribes, I insisted on my orders being obeyed,
the assumption of an authoritative tone being often a traveller's only chance of safety among
Asiatics. I distributed medicine among the troops and was afterwards told in Durbar by the
Maharajah that some medicine which I had sent to Wazir Zoraweru, who was then on his
Bureyl expedition, had saved his life.
[ This peak overlooks BuDj'i and the whole course of the Indus, (with a sight of the Gilgit ralley,) from its sudden
southward bend at the Makpou-i-Sliang-Rong, till it again bends westward beyond Chilas.]