Number 6 Jezailchees were Afghan riflemen. James Atkinson, doctor, journalist and artist of the Afghan Campaign, became superintendent of the Government Gazette in 1818, and of the Press from 1823. In 1833, he became surgeon to the 55th native Infantry and between 1838 and 1841 served in Kabul. The present sketches are original drawings made by Atkinson on the spot and relate to his publications Sketches in Afghanistan and The Expedition into Afghanistan. The drawings are inscribed with references to the artist’s journal, and the artist’s notes explain where in his planned publication the various illustrations should appear. Clearly Atkinson intended many more drawings to be published than in fact appeared. His sketches in fact contain 25 drawings plus the original frontispiece(the original drawing for which is in this collection); 16 of the remaining original drawings are in the India Office Library. At the time when Atkinson was travelling Afghanistan was a little-known country. Atkinson took drawing lessons from the artist George Chinnery. He probably first met Chinnery in 1805 when he was appointed assistant surgeon at Backergunge, to the south of Dhaka, soon after Chinnery was in Dhaka from 1808. His wife became a student of the artist and Atkinson himself is known to have executed a number of copies after Chinnery in addition to his own original watercolours. ‘March 28. – Abi-goom to Siri Bolân, nine miles and a half. Passed closer among the hills than before, and the march less fatiguing in consequence of the footing being firmer. Two-thirds of the way is the date-tree, on the right hand, which gives the name of Siri Kajoor to that part of the pass. The road is hemmed in by wild and rugged mountains, which afford numerous inaccessible positions for the predatory and murderous Belooches. Their Jezails, the native rifle, with a fixed rest, are formidable weapons, and are said to carry about eight hundred yards. They are often seven feet long. A dead camel and a camp-follower, with his throad cut, and otherwise cruelly mutilated to death, were lying close together on the middle of the road’.(1) 1. J. Atkinson, The Expedition into Afghanistan, page 117
J. Atkinson, Sketches in Afghanistan, London, 1842 J. Atkinson, The Expedition into Afghanistan, Notes and Sketches descriptive of the country contained in a personal narrative during the Campaign of 1839 and 1840, up to the surrender of Dost Mahomed Khan, The Naval Military Press, 2006, page 117