1 THE COMMISSARIAT DEPARTMENT. 313
2 Some time was employed. in collecting suf-
3 ficient supplies also for the consumption of the
4 ‘camp: though nothing was wanted at present,
5 as the bazar, now consisting of no less than a
6 hundred shopkeepers, supplied all our wants ;
7 yet, in case of emergency, we could not depend
8 solely on them. The difficult and tedious task
9 of collecting these supplies, of keeping the
10 accounts, and of performing every duty of the
11 and so many Durrani horsemen presented themselves to be
12 enrolled, that it became necessary to select only those
13 whose steeds and arms were better than of ordinary de-
14 scription. Several chiefs who came for this purpose,
15 attended by their clansmen, formed fine specimens of the
16 rude and predatory soldier; their manly and tall figures
17 being generally enveloped in the folds of a crimson chogah
18 embroidered with gold, which, opening in front, display a
19 crimson band studded with pistols and knives, or an arm
20 protected by a steel gauntlet which reached to the elbow,
21 and was terminated at the hand by a flexible glove of chain
22 rings. To Maule and myself fell the lot of instructing
23 some dozen and a half of individuals in the British niethod
24 of gunnery; and our crew consisted of a most motley
25 group, enlisted by twos and threes, as we could collect
26 them, the basis of the set being formed by three deserters
27 from Dost Mahomed Khan, to each of whom the Colonel
28 gave dresses of honour as an inducement for othe¥s to
29 follow their example.”—-Barr’s Journal, pages 268, 269.
30 P
31 ’