On its return march to
Candahar the rear-guard had a sharp skirmish at Khushk-i-Nakhud with
Alizai tribesmen, of whom 163 were left dead on the field. Soon after the
return of Stewart and Biddulph to Candahar, orders arrived that the
former should retain in Candahar, Quetta, and Pishin a strong division of
all arms, sending back to India the remainder of his command under
Biddulph--the march to be made by the previously unexplored Thal-Chotiali
route to the eastward of the Pisheen valley.
Before Sir Sam Browne moved forward from Jellalabad to Gundamuk he had
been able to report to the Viceroy the death of Shere Ali. That
unfortunate man had seen with despair the departure on December 10th of
the last Russian from Cabul--sure token that he need hope for nothing
from Kaufmann or the Tzar. His chiefs unanimous that further resistance
by him was hopeless, he released his son Yakoub Khan from his long harsh
imprisonment, constituted him Regent, and then followed the Russian
mission in the direction of Tashkend. Kaufmann would not so much as allow
him to cross the frontier, and after a painful illness Shere Ali died on
February 21st, 1879, near Balkh in northern Afghanistan. He was a man who
deserved a better fate than that which befell him. His aspiration was to
maintain the independence of the kingdom which he ruled with justice if
also with masterfulness, and he could not brook the degradation of
subjection.
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