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In fact, Ayub's force ceased to exist; many of his troops at once assumed the garb of peaceful cultivators, and the Pretender himself fled to Herat . Papers, Afghanistan, No. 3 , p. 82. Hensman, The Afghan War; Shadbolt, op. cit. pp. 108-110.
General Biddulph examined this position carefully in 1879, and discovered a site for a work which would command the valley of the Argandab and sweep the elevated open plain toward the west and northwest. Abbaza is a village at the crossing of the Herat road over the Helmund, forty-six miles west of Atta Karez. On the west bank lies the ancient castle of Girishk.
"It must be nearly eight," she thought, and she strove to pick up the thread of her lost thoughts. But a sharp rap at her door awakened her, and a tall, spare figure crossed the room. As the maid was about to draw the curtains, Evelyn cried to her "Oh, wait a moment, Herat.... I'm so tired. I didn't get to bed till two o'clock." "Mademoiselle forgets that she told me to awaken her very early.
Neither trees nor houses are anywhere in sight; but the chief of the sowars and another man ride away over the hills, and late at night return with two men carrying bread and mast and fresh goat-milk enough to feed the whole hungry party. We make a leisurely start next morning, the reason of the dalliance being that we are but a few farsakhs from Herat.
The survivors fell back on Herat, General Lumsden and his escort retired in the same direction, and Russia took possession of the coveted prize . Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 , for General Lumsden's refutation of Komaroff's misstatements; also for the general accounts, ibid.
Thus it is seen that modern Afghanistan comprises three great districts Herat in the west, Kabul in the east, and Kandahar in the centre, with the seat of government at the cities of the same names respectively.
In 1837-38, therefore, when a Persian army was before Herat, with Russian officers busy in the camp, it is no wonder that, to previously excited imaginations, the danger should have seemed to assume a tangible form.
When the ruler of Herat agreed that the Shah had claims, the English Government made the Shah sign an agreement in 1853 that he would give up pressing his claims as regarded Herat. But in 1856 the Persians retook this city, because they declared that the Ameer of Kabul was planning an advance on Herat.
Of course, he is an ally of doubtful integrity, for he would probably quite as readily join the English, were they to anticipate us and make their appearance in his country with a sufficiently imposing force. But nothing prevents our being first. Our railway goes as far as Merv, seventy-five miles from Herat, and from this central station to the Afghan frontier.
He also substitutes Oxus for Gozan. The name of the city according to our text is Ghaznah, which eight hundred years ago was the capital of Afghanistan. Ibn Batuta says it was ten stages from Kandahar on the way to Herat. Istakhri says: "No city of this countryside was richer in merchants and merchandise, for it was as the port of India."
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