And in this
endeavour we are singularly fortunate in having for reference a diary
written from day to day by Henry Daly, who, in the absence of Lumsden on
a special mission, commanded the corps.[11]
[11] _Memoirs of General Sir Henry Dermot Daly, G.C.B., C.I.E.;_ by
Major H. Daly. London, 1905.
The first night's march took the Guides sixteen miles to Nowshera, where
after barely two hours' rest came orders to push on to Attock, another
eighteen miles. To add to the hardships of this march, it so chanced
that the Mahomedan fast of Ramzan was in observance, during which no
follower of the Prophet may eat or drink between sunrise and sunset.
Parched, hungry, and weary, the thirty-four mile march was completed,
and the Indus crossed at ten in the morning of the 14th of May.
Halting by order forty-two hours at Attock, to allow of the arrival of a
relief garrison, the Guides pushed on thirty-two miles to Burhan, on the
night of the 15th--16th, in the midst of a violent dust storm. Many of
the men were very footsore from their long march of the previous day,
but all were cheerful and light-hearted, making naught of their
hardships.
Another thirty-two mile march brought the corps to Jani-ki-Sang, and
took them the next morning fifteen miles in to Rawul Pindi. On the road
Herbert Edwardes passed the corps, and drove Daly on into Rawul Pindi,
there to meet the great hearts of the Punjab, John Lawrence, Neville
Chamberlain, and John Nicholson.
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