Finally, in the context which precedes the concluding ode, this practice of virtue is likened to living in the sunshine of the hotoke's "Here," says Mr. Foss, "I have again altered hotoke countenance. to God." Whate'er I hear, whate'er I see, I think none can read these simple yet touching verses without feeling that there is a vein of deep religious thought pervading the Japanese mind which offers a grand field to the Christian labourer-a field which, if not yet white to harvest, is yet wonderfully prepared for the reception of the good seed of the Word. Many there be in beautiful, smiling Japan, saying, "Who will show us any good?" Shall not Christ's people send forth the earnest prayer, "Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy countenance upon them"? Yea, let the Sun of Righteousness speedily arise with healing in His wings, and let the heralds of the Cross throng to teach Japan from God's own blessed Book the true" discourse concerning the way to instruct the Heart." "Then shall they sing in the ways of the Lord that great is the glory of our Lord." MR. GORDON'S MARCH TO KANDAHAR. E have been favoured by Major E. S. Gordon with the following very interesting Journal of his lamented brother the Rev. G. M. Gordon's march to Quetta and Kandahar with Generals Biddulph and Stewart in the winter of 1878-9. He has just received the Notes from Kandahar itself, where they were found among Mr. Gordon's papers after his death. Of course, so far as they refer to military operations, they are now out of date, the march described being the first undertaken by the British troops at the beginning of the Afghan campaign. Mr. Gordon himself went over the ground twice afterwards, when, after staying a month in Kandahar, he returned to India, and when, some eleven months later, he went up on that second visit from which he never came back. But as a descriptive narrative of the incidents of the journey, and as an account of the country and people, these Notes will be read, we believe, with very great interest, especially coming from so acute an observer and so devoted a missionary as Mr. Gordon was. And it may be-God grant it!-that the route described will hereafter be a highway for the messengers of the Gospel. Human eyes can as yet see no opening for active missionary work in the interior of Afghanistan ; but doors which seemed much more hopelessly closed in past years have been flung wide open in our own day, and who can tell how soon Central Asia may, in the mysterious providence of God, be a great and inviting field of evangelistic effort? With Mr. Gordon's journal there came to us route, apparently the work of his own hand. a sketch map of the We have, however, refrained from engraving it, as the expense would be considerable, and so many excellent maps of the whole country have been published during the last two years in connexion with the Afghan War that almost all our readers will be able to lay one of these open before them while reading the journal. A very good one appeared lately in the monthly Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, to illustrate the able and interesting paper on "The Highway from the Indus to Kandahar " read by Sir Richard Temple before that Society on June 14th last.* Sir R. Temple's route-the one laid down for the proposed railway-is not the same throughout as that described by Mr. Gordon, but it coincides with it at several points. THE JOURNAL NOTES OF A MARCH TO KANDAHAR. By the late Rev. George Maxwell Gordon. HE late war with Amir Sher Ali Khan of Kabul afforded me a longdesired opportunity of visiting Bilochistan, the Gedronia of the ancients. Bilochistan is the name given to the country west of Sindh and south of Afghanistan. Its population is somewhat heterogeneous, comprising many tribes, amongst whom I was chiefly brought into contact with Maris, Bugtis, and Brahuis. The country is mountainous, except in the north-west, and along the coast. The rivers are insignificant, except after heavy rains. The inhabitants are more given to pastoral than to agricultural pursuits. Most of the passes leading from India to Bilochistan cross the Suleiman range. A glance at the map shows a remarkable peculiarity with regard to this part of the country. Although numerous streams issue from its heights, and, owing to the formation of the country, take'an easterly direction, very few join the Indus, the greatest number being absorbed by the soil at the foot of the mountains. Here exists a more or less narrow margin of horizontal beds of sandstone and conglomerate. Nothing can be conceived as possessing a more desolate aspect than these ridges; scarcely a sign of vegetation breaks the uniform brown of the arid rocks. There are, therefore, few inducements for a traveller to attempt the Bolan Pass, if he be in search of the picturesque. Moreover, the climate is very trying to a European constitution, and even Natives have a tradition that nothing hotter exists than this strip between the River Indus and the mountains. Our starting-point was Rajhanpore, which we left on the 9th October, 1878. This little place is situate on the west bank of the Indus, near Mithankor, where all the waters of the Panjab unite. The route usually adopted by caravans through the Bolan is that via Sukkur, Shikanpur, and Jacobabad; but that route, owing to the inundation of the Indus, was pronounced, at this season, to be impracticable. There was, therefore, no alternative but to adopt the direct but more difficult route via Bagti Dera. Hence the quiet little station of Rajhanpore assumed an unusually bustling and animated appearance. Numbers of troops of all descriptions, artillery, cavalry and infantry, were being pushed on to the front, and it was interesting to observe how the Native regiments contained representatives of most of the martial races of India. The brave little Gurkha from the central Himalaya marched quite as well as his Pathan confrère of the north-west, and afforded as Sir R. Temple's paper was printed in the September number of the Proceedings, with several very clever and picturesque sketches of scenes on the route. The map to accompany the paper, however, appeared in the October number. (Publisher, E. Stanford, Charing Cross.) marked a contrast to the Sikh as the latter to the Hindustani. Moreover, military stores of all sorts were being sent forward in eager haste to Quetta, and demanded all the camels available for their transport. These patient animals were collected from all over Sindh and the neighbouring provinces, and laboured on under their heavy loads. Unacclimatized to the hills of Bilochistan, a very large proportion subsequently succumbed to cold, fatigue, and want of proper food. It is difficult to estimate their loss correctly, but if rough estimates are to be believed, some 50,000 of these patient animals were lost between the declaration of war and the signing of peace with Yakub Khan. 1. I left Rajhanpore with the 2nd Biloch Regiment, commanded by Colonel Nicholets, for Asni, the first halting-place on the road to Quetta. The road lies to the west, the walk across the plain, called the "thal," being easy and pleasant. The country is flat and sandy, with low bushes now and then to relieve its monotony. Our march was lengthened by two miles, in order to avoid water and mud, the result of recent rains. 2. Lal Gosha, 16 miles. There is little variety in the aspect of the country, for the same flat desert, spotted here and there with scant herbage, met the eye, and there was nothing to mark our track but a furrow on either side, and the carcase of a horse and a camel or two that had died on the march. We found we had two cavalry regiments ahead of us, the 1st and 2nd Panjab Cavalry, both bound for the same destination as we were. The nearer we approached the mountains the more apparent became the difficulties with regard to the transport. Everyone was eagerly discussing plans upon which the comforts of the soldier depend; and what is only an ordinary obstacle to the Englishman, to be surmounted with patience and hard work, seems an insuperable difficulty to the native mind. Many camel owners, in consequence, ran away with their charge, rather than face the dreaded Bolan. There is no village at Lal Gosha, only what is called a chowkee, a few huts that mark the stage. The rule observed at this season is to march by night, and halt by day. We found the fatigues of the night march far preferable to the sultry heat of the daily halt. Here also another element was against us, for a dust storm searched every nook of our flimsy tents, which flapped and strained at the tent pegs, while the thermometer registered 1049 in the shade. 3. Bandawala, 16 miles. The first part of this march presented no difficulties, except where the road became heavy with sand. As a change from the usually barren appearance of the country, I observed, near Bandawala some crops of jawár and bájrá. The jawár is a kind of millet (holcus sorgum) usually cultivated for the kharif (autumn) harvest. When used for fodder it is much more thickly sown than when grown as a grain. The bajrá (holcus spicatus) or spiked millet, is, like the former, grown for the kharif. It is said to be heating, and therefore specially adapted as a food for winter, ground and made up into cakes. There is a fort at Bandawala with an outpost. I received here attention and civilities from Sher Muhammad Khan, who recognized me as the padré who had visited his uncle, the Nawab of Rojhan, last year. 4. Kabudrani, 21 miles. This is one of the longest and most trying marches in the whole route, in consequence of the heavy sand. After a walk of eight hours, we halted for four hours at midnight by a well, where a very limited supply of water is obtained in the bed of a stream. A Biloch guide showed us the way, which would otherwise be very difficult to find, as it lies through a trackless jungle. We reached Kabudrani at eight o'clock in the morning, and found the encampment located in the bed of a nullah or watercourse, with good water under a cliff. But beyond this there was absolutely nothing to cheer the weary traveller, not even the sight of a few huts. The only shelter we had was a wretched pilie-tree. This encampment reminded me of the Desert of Sinai. Here my Biloch guide asked leave to stop at sunrise and say his prayers, which he did with the usual prostrations and recitations. Such a custom is somewhat unusual with the Bilochis, as he candidly admitted. "We used never to say our prayers, but since the Sepoys from Hindustan have come among us they have persuaded us to do so." So far he approved of their customs, but to my question whether, in other respects, they set a good example, he replied, "No; they are a lying, rascally set." He certainly did not much like these foreigners. As we sat under a tree he inquired whether the English, as a nation, had always had the same power and coherence. I told him that was not the case; "on the contrary, we were once like you, with your feuds and forays between the Maris, Bugtis, Brahuis, &c. We were split up into hostile tribes, Kelts, Saxons, Angles, &c.; but after foreign missionaries came to visit us, and preached to us, we received God's Word, and became a united nation." "I wish," he answered, "that we could do so also." In spite of its general barrenness, the country abounds in game, and as a proof of this we caught sight of a few deer this morning. We had now reached the confines of the British territory, and the scene changed into one of peculiar wild picturesqueness. 5. Kajuri, 14 miles. This march was heavy in the extreme, the road being nothing but a succession of watercourses, the first half being stony and sandy, with water in many places, said to be brackish. We started at seven in the evening, as we had a brilliant moon, and arrived at midnight, with about half-an-hour's halt. This made thirty miles in one day, and a heavier thirty miles' march I never had. Some of the men had walked thirty-five miles in the twenty-four hours with their rifles and kit. We were so fortunate as to find a pleasant resting-place for a halt half-way, studded with a few trees. On the road I passed a place which was pointed out to me as the scene of a sanguinary encounter in the time of the Sikhs, and my guide showed me the spots marked by stones where the warriors fell in the contest. The first few hours after sunset were oppressively hot, especially as the road or track runs through valleys with lofty enclosing rocks. The latter half of the march was somewhat easier. As it was Sunday we had a short service in the mess tent, with the thermometer over 100. Civilization seemed to have been left behind; we had not seen even a village since we left Rajhanpore, a distance of eighty miles. 6. Loti, 6 miles. After a short ascent a plateau is reached with a small cemetery close by. Here my guide, according to his usual practice, repeated his Fatiha, or confession of faith. He told me that the Bilochis liked having their dead buried close to the road. In a conversation we entered upon he asked me if it was true that every English child has its pay fixed by Government from the day of its birth. Major G― said he remembered a field-marshal of eighty years' service who was made a captain at eight, and a major at sixteen years of age. Having reached our destination we encamped on an open piece of ground, with small low trees, of the farash or tamarisk kind, giving a scanty shade to little knots of Sepoys. This halt was quite refreshing, especially as the water was good and clear. Evidence of game was likewise procured, as some of our lovers of sport managed to bring in some wild pigeons and sand-grouse. A tent had been erected at Loti for the sick, and I visited this temporary hospital, which was under the care of Dr. A., who attended some thirty or forty invalids, chiefly laid up with fever, most of them being Musalmans. 7. Bugti Dera, 16 miles. We were now entering a country so far away from the plains that the guides from Bandawala protested and declared they should not know the way, and mine, perhaps designedly, missed the path thrice in three miles, no doubt to impress upon me the impropriety of taking him so far from his home. After some heavy plodding through loose sand it occurred to him that he would like a drink. This desire sharpened his ears to make out voices in the neighbourhood proceeding from a Native encampment, and he went at once and addressed himself to a Bugti family consisting of a grandfather, grandmother, children, and dogs. The old man was quite civil, and gave me a humble salutation in the name of God "Bismillah." He then stirred up a matronly camel, whose calf seconded his appeal for milk. When the calf had sucked, he drew two large bowls of milk, one for me and one for my guide. It was welcome to thirsty people, but had a slightly acid taste, and my dog refused it. Going on we came to another Bugti encampment, with horses, asses, sheep, goats, and cattle. The sheep in this district are excellent eating, superior to those in the Panjab. The shepherds are a fine-looking set of men, with long curling hair. They have no measurement for distance, and can never tell you how far a place is. They gave us a guide who led us on past a conical hill to the entrance of a narrow ravine, whose moonlit cliffs were very striking. After this the road was good the rest of the way, except where it followed a sandy nullah. A little owl chattered at us from a tree, and the two Bilochis stopped "to hear what the bird would say." They would have stayed long had I not urged them on. They say that when you are walking, and the owl speaks, you are to halt till she speaks again. If you are sitting you are to rise and go on. After march ing four hours I spread my plaid on the ground, and laid down, though not to rest, for sleep was difficult, on account of myriads of pertinacious little sand-flies. I rose, therefore, long before sunrise, when I heard the voices of the approaching troops. After prayers I again set out on my march, and went for five miles through a land which had all the appearance of natural fertility about it, and might, therefore, be cultivated with success. Indeed, here and there I passed through a field where irrigation was carried on by means of small ducts leading from the rivulets. At length I arrived at Bugti Dera, a little village on a broad plain, and saw with pleasure our tents pitched amidst the low shrubs abounding here, with partridges in plenty. 8. Sangsila, 20 miles. This was a long march of 7 hours to the west, along a plain flanked with mountains on either side. The land is partially cultivated, though it is difficult to make out anything at night. As soon as the moon made its appearance, at 8 p.m., we started again on our journey, but had not got very far when we lost the track, and only recovered it with the help of some camp-followers, who just then came up. At a convenient spot we made a halt for a short time, and watched the bhishtis filling their masaks with water for the regiment following at a little distance. On the road I observed, half-way, two or three large cemeteries and mounds which seem to indicate the site of an ancient city. The character of country begins to change gradually, for on the right hand the ridge of hills becomes lower and approaches the road, assuming in some places the even outline |