1 ADMINISTRATION OF GEN. AVITABILE. 279
2 small pension from the British Government for
3 services performed to Mr. Elphinsjone.
4 The Sikhs met with ‘many difficulties in
5 establishing their authority in Peshawr.
6 Much, bloodshed was occasioned, and Ranjeet
7 Singh was against its permanent occupation’;
8 but the honour of his nation made him main-
9 tain it, though many lives were annually sacri-
10 ficed. Since General Avitabile’s appointment
11 much tranquillity has been restored, but he has.
12 been exceedingly severe in exercising his au-
13 thority by hanging many Afghans for small
14 crimes. A thief can hardly ever escape with
15 life; he is almost certain of being hanged.
16 Both in approaching and leaving the city we
17 observed a row of four or five gibbets on a
18 height to the right, with corpses hanging from
19 them.*
20 * Notwithstanding Avitabile administers justice with a
21 strong hand, murders are still committed in the neighbour-
22 hood of Peshawr; and the other night, within a few yards
23 of our camp, a poor grass-cutter was cruelly cut off. Such
24 occurrences are, however, far too common in the district
25 to create surprise, and the bloodthirsty disposition of the
26 Afghan is but too manifest in the number of gallows that