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[Illustration: Chitral Bridge and Fort.]
By
LIEUTENANT W.G.L. BEYNON, D.S.O.1st BATTALLION 3rd GOORKA RIFLES
1896
21st October 1895
Before you read this short history of a few brief weeks, I must warn youthat it is no record of exciting adventure or heroic deeds, but simplyan account of the daily life of British officers and Indian troops on afrontier expedition.
How we lived and marched, what we ate and drank, our small jokes andtrials, our marches through snow or rain, hot valleys or pleasantfields, in short, all that contributed to fill the twenty-four hours ofthe day is what I have to tell.
I write it for you, and that it may please you is all I ask.—Your son,
Those marked with a * are from Sketches by the Author.
* * * * *
*** Thanks are due to the Publishers of Mr. Thomson's The Chitral
Campaign for the loan of two blocks illustrating "Chokalwat" and "Nisa
Gol" from Lieut. Beynon's sketches.
[Illustration: MAP OF NORTH WEST FRONTIER OF INDIA*]
"Would you like to go up to Gilgit?"
"Rather."
I was down in the military offices at Simla, hunting for a book and somemaps, when I was asked the above question. No idea of Gilgit had beforeentered my head, but with the question came the answer, and I have sincewondered why I never before thought of applying for the billet.
This was at the end of June 1894, and on the 24th August I was crossingthe Burzil pass into the Gilgit district. As day broke on the 31stAugust, I dropped down several thousand feet from Doyen to Ramghat inthe Indus valley, and it suddenly struck me I must have come down toolow, and