propensities, and savage nature were continually requiring his
mediation or interference.

"_Quem deus vult perdere prius dementat_" is an old saw most
applicable to the conduct, or rather want of conduct of the "powers
that were" during the spring of 1841, and the state of the important
outpost of Badjgh[=a]r is a type of the condition of most of the
detached posts throughout the kingdom of Cabul; the dreadful
catastrophe which ushered in the year 1842 is but too unanswerable a
proof of the opinion I here express; and though innumerable instances
of individual gallantry as well amongst the unlettered privates as the
superior officers have thrown a halo round their bloody graves, the
stern truth still forces itself upon us, that the temporary eclipse of
British glory was not the consequences of events beyond the power of
human wisdom to foresee or ward off, but the natural results of an
overweening confidence in our power, and of an infatuated blindness to
the sure indications of the coming storm which for many months before
it burst darkened our political horizon.

It will easily be believed that the various duties entailed upon Capt.
Hay left him but little time for scientific researches, yet this
indefatigable officer had already made a fine collection of geological
specimens from the adjacent hills. I regret that circumstances prevent
me from giving any of the useful information which his industry
supplied. I am only able to say, that the fossils were generally found
in tertiary deposits, and were plentiful in quantity, but the variety
was not great. He had at the time of our visit made, likewise,
considerable progress in putting his position into as good a state
of defence as circumstances allowed; of course he had not means to
defilade his fort, but he had erected a breastwork four feet and a