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FOR PRIVATE CIRCULATION ONLY.
PRIVATE JOURNAL
OF
HENRY FRANCIS BROOKE,
LATE BRIGADIER-GENERAL
COMMANDING 2ND INFANTRY BRIGADE
KANDAHAR FIELD FORCE,
SOUTHERN AFGHANISTAN,
FROM APRIL 22ND TO AUGUST 16TH, 1880.
For................................................
From...............................................
DUBLIN:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CURWEN, 3, NASSAU STREET.
1881.
PREFACE.
The following Journal or Diary was written by mydear Husband—to use his own words—"for you, ofcourse, first, but written in this form specially forthe dear chicks, and therefore quite simple and plain,so as to interest and amuse them; but I shall be veryglad if it interests the others if you will send it therounds, as then I need not try to write the samestory over and over again, which is very tiresome."
When on the 20th March, 1880, being at the timeAdjutant-General of the Bombay Army, my dearHusband, to his infinite satisfaction and delight, andfull of ardour and zeal, was ordered to the Front, totake command, as Brigadier-General, of the 2ndInfantry Brigade at Kandahar, Southern Afghanistan;knowing how deeply interested we (his wife,and children, his mother, brothers and sisters) wouldbe in all his movements and actions, he conceivedthe idea of writing this Journal, and most regularlyweek by week, as he found time to write, and as theIndian mail arrived, did I receive it, and most eagerlywas it looked for and read. It will be seen that atfirst going off the wording of it was simple so thatthe children might easily understand all that theirdear Father was doing, and small details describingthe various stages of his journey up to Kandaharfrom Bombay are fully entered into with the objectof amusing and interesting them, and that they mightthe more readily picture him both then, and whenlater on, having reached Kandahar, and beforetroubles began, he amused himself by daily rides intothe neighbouring fields and orchards, and still furtherinto the villages and surrounding districts, not alwaysunattended without a certain amount of risk anddanger, and thus became acquainted intimately withthe country within 12 or 15 miles of Kandahar. Butas difficulties developed themselves, and were followed,first by the lamentable defeat and retreat from theb