allies who loved us little better than they loved the Afgháns, was the task which Pollock strove to accomplish during the two months of his halt at Pesháwar. In spite of pressing appeals from Jalálábád, he knew himself powerless to move forward with untrustworthy troops. 'God knows' — he wrote to Macgregor on the 12th of March — 'it has been my anxious wish to do so, but I have been helpless. I came on ahead to Pesháwar to arrange for an advance, but was saluted with a report of 1,900 sick, and a bad feeling among the Sepoys. I visited the hospitals and endeavoured to encourage by talking to them; but they had no heart.'
On the 1st of March a fresh panic had broken out among the Sepoys, and the Hindus in four out of five regiments were openly declaring against a forward move. Desertions happened almost daily. Coercion at such a time was out of the question; but Pollock and his officers did what they could to allay the ferment, and after some days a reaction set in. So thoroughly, however, did Pollock mistrust his Sepoys, that he wrote to Sale on the 27th — 'Without more white faces I question even now if they would go[1].'
Two days later White's brigade of cavalry and horse artillery arrived at Pesháwar. Another regiment of white faces — the 31st Foot — was still so far behind, that Pollock decided to go on without them as soon as all his arrangements were complete. Sale's Europeans were now living on salt meat, while his
- ↑ Afghan Papers; Low's Life of Sir G. Pollock.
