The tribesmen for the most part carried off into
the hills their moveable effects, and the destruction of their petty
forts apparently gave them little concern. For the most part they
maintained their irreconcilable attitude, hanging on the flanks of our
detachments on their return march through the lateral passes to their
camps, and inflicting irritating if not very severe losses. Occasionally
they thought proper to make nominal submission with tongue in cheek,
breaking out again when opportunity or temptation presented itself.
Detailed description of those raids and counter-raids would be very
tedious reading. It was when starting to co-operate in one of those
necessary but tantalising expeditions that a number of troopers of the
10th Hussars were drowned in a treacherous ford of the Cabul river near
Jellalabad.
General Roberts, to whom the conduct of operations in the Kuram district
had been entrusted, crossed the frontier on November 21st, and marched up
the valley with great expedition. The inhabitants evinced friendliness,
bringing in live stock and provisions for sale. Reaching Habib Killa on
the morning of the 28th, he received a report that the Afghan force which
he knew to be opposed to him had abandoned its guns on the hither side of
the Peiwar Kotul, and was retreating in confusion over that summit.
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