On the 5th of July we reached Piedb[=a]gh, five miles further down the valley, which gradually decreased in breadth, seldom exceeding two hundred yards, and sometimes contracting to fifty.  Along the banks of a muddy river flowing through the centre of the narrow vale, the sycamore tree was very luxuriant, and two or three forts formed a chain of communication from one end of the cultivated land to the other.  Piedb[=a]gh, as its name implies, is a complete orchard, piedan meaning perpetual, and b[=a]gh, garden; from a distance it looks like a thick wood with the turrets of the forts overtopping the dark foliage.  We took advantage of the quiet beauty of this spot to give our horses a day’s rest, and lucky it was for us we had at Bamee[=a]n exchanged for stout yaboos the unwieldy camels which we had brought from Cabul; the yaboos get over the ground twice as fast as the camel, and for mountainous districts are infinitely preferable to the “ship of the desert.”

It was lucky also that we had not burdened ourselves with bedsteads or charpoys, as they are called in the East (literally “four feet"); they would have inconvenienced us much; and we should, probably, have been forced to abandon them on the road, the pathways along the glens being often so narrow, and so encumbered with the detritus from the overhanging mountains, as to make it necessary to pack our baggage very compactly; inattention to this important point in mountain travelling is sometimes followed by very serious consequences, for the chair or bedstead, projecting far beyond the centre of gravity of the unfortunate animal, catches against a corner of rock, and both load and pony run imminent risk of being hurled into the abyss below.  We were now so inured to sleeping on the ground, that had it not been for the multitudes of fleas we should never have felt the want of a more elevated sleeping place.  The animal and vegetable character of Piedb[=a]gh may be stated in a few words—­apricots and fleas are in abundance, the former very large sized, and the latter healthy.

In the course of my journal I hope to be able to relate the circumstances of a very pretty little affair which occurred here, some months after we passed through, between two companies of Shah Soojah’s Goorkah regiment and the inhabitants of the neighbouring forts.  The Goorkahs, upholding their well-known character, fought desperately against an overwhelming force; they would have suffered severely but for the able conduct of their leader, who was an European non-commissioned officer and quarter-master sergeant of the corps; his manoeuvring would have done credit to many an older soldier.