1 310 VIEW OF THE KHAIBAR PASS.
2 On the 15th one of the sentries of the
3 Ghoorka battalion on duty in our camp
4 stopped two chupars, or mounted messengers,
5 belonging to the Mission, which created a
6 great disturbance, but was fortunately quelled
7 without any serious consequences.*
8 16th—Sir Claude Wade, accompanied by
9 General Ventura, went again to the tope on
10 the other side of Takal, which he had before
11 visited with General Avitabile, to take a view
12 of the entrance of the Khaibar pass; as the
13 Sikh officers were impressed with a belief that
14 the occupation of Khaibar would be attended
15 with impassable difficulties; while Colonel
16 Wade from the beginning had been of the
17 * “The persons whom Colonel Wade usually ‘employs
18 as spies are his choopars, or mounted messengers, who dis-
19 guise themselves inimitably; and it was only the other
20 day that two returned from a successful visit to Jalalabad,
21 whither they had gone dressed, or rather undressed, as
22 faqirs; for I believe they were not encumbered with
23 many clothes. Most of these men are wild and daring
24 fellows, apt to quarrel, and by no means slow at drawing
25 their weapons, especially when their opponents are either
26 Sikh§ or Hindus.”— Barr’s Journal, p. 281.