On the right of this drawing the peasants are treading out the corn, and on the left winnowing it. The small building half-way up the mountain is called the Johan Numat, which commands an extensive prospect over the valley of Killa-Kazee; a little below this spot is the site of the Emperor Baber’s Tomb. In the narrow gap, formed by the two craggy mountains, sloping towards each other, and which is seen in the centre of this view, lies the road from the camp to Cabul, the extreme edges of those slopes, as seen from a distance, exhibit a line of fortified or rather serrated and loop-holed wall from top to bottom. The road from Killa-Kazee is very confined, hemmed in by huge masses of rock on the left hand and dense groves of mulberry trees on the right bordering the Cabul river. In the foreground of the drawing is represented the surrender of Dost Mahommed Khan to Sir William Macnaghten. This event occurred while the British Envoy was taking his accustomed ride, attended by his staff, and totally unconscious of any intention on the part of Dost, to surrender himself. The latest news from this part states that Captain Mackenzie was sent by Akhbar Khan to the camp at Jellalabad, on parole, as the bearer of despatch from Major Pottinger and to treat for the ransom of his companions. Sketches in Afghanistan, Henry Graves & Co. and W.H. Allen & Co., London, 1842. Letterpress title printed in blue incorporating list of plates, tinted lithographic title, dedication leaf, 25 tinted plates by Louis and Charles Haghe. This is one of the earliest collections of views of Afghanistan. James Atkinson, the celebrated translator of Firdausi’s Shah Nameh and one of the first Europeans to explore Afghanistan, was on of the pioneers of oriental studies. The lithographers Louis and Charles Haghe were involved in a number of important publications in the 1840’s and 1850’s and are celebrated for the particular high quality of their work. The Surrender of Dost Muhammad Khan in 1840 – A Footnote. In 1842, James Atkinson, a scholarly doctor who had been the Superintending Surgeon of the Army of the Indus that went into Afghanistan in 1839, had published by lithographers in London a collection of his drawings: Sketches in Afghaunistan. Plate 18 of these is well known. The title under the picture reads: SURRENDER OF DOST MAHOMMED KHAN TO SIR WILLIAM HAY MACNAGHTEN BART AT THE ENTRANCE INTO CABUL FROM KILLA-KAZEE This, however, is totally misleading. The accompanying text for this plate is also misleading: Plate 18. Entrance into Caubul from Killa-Kazee. On the right of this drawing the peasants are treading out the corn, and on the left winnowing it. The small building half-way up the mountain is called the Johan Numat, which commands an extensive prospect over the valley of Killa-Kâzee; a little below this spot is the site of the Emperor Bâber’s Tomb. In the narrow gap, formed by the two craggy mountains, sloping towards each other, and which is seen in the centre of this view, lies the road from the camp to Caubul, the extreme edges of these slopes, as seen from a distance, exhibit a line of fortified or rather serrated and loop-holed wall from top to bottom. The road from Killa-Kâzee is very confined, hemmed in by huge masses of rock on the left hand and dense groves of mulberry trees on the right bordering the Caubul river. In the foreground of the drawing is represented the surrender of Dost Mahommed Khan to Sir William Macnaghten. This event occurred while the British Envoy was taking his accustomed ride, attended by his staff, and totally unconscious of any intention on the part of the Dost, to surrender himself. The latest news from this part states that Captain Mackenzie was sent by Akhbar Khan to the camp at Jellalabad, on parole, as the bearer of a despatch from Major Pottinger and to treat for the ransom of his companions The key phrase is “In the foreground of the drawing is represented ...” for, in fact, the lithographers have put together two separate drawings. The background drawing was probably done in August 1839, when the Army of the Indus initially came to Kabul and was encamped to its west in the area of ‘Killa Kazee’. The foreground drawing can only have been done over a year later, after Dost Muhammad Khan had surrendered in November 1840. And the surrender, an act of submission, did not take place in the open countryside but was at the very end of Macnaghten’s ride, when he and his staff were back at Kabul and within the Bala Hissar. In the same year that the lithographs were published, Atkinson also had a book published in London, The Expedition into Affghanistan: Notes and Sketches descriptive of the Country. In this he spells out in detail the surrender: On the evening of the 3rd [of November 1840], whilst taking his ride, the Envoy and Minister [Macnaghten] ... was proceeding homewards, accompanied by two or three officers, and within fifty yards of the gate of his residence, when a horseman, passing his escort and the gentlemen with him, rode suddenly up to him, and said, “Are you the Envoy?” “Yes, I am the Envoy.” “Then,” rejoined the horseman, “here is the Ameer.” “What Ameer? Where is he?” “Dost Mahomed Khan!” was the reply. The surprise, the amazement of Sir William Macnaghten at this announcement may be readily conceived, and in an instant afterwards, he beheld the ex-chief himself alighting from his horse, and claiming his protection. The whole scene was truly electrical. The Dost was requested to remount and ride on to the gateway, where both alighted. The envoy then took his arm and led him up to the house ... [pp. 354-5] A couple of pages later he records Dost Muhammad’s own explanation of how he had got there: He cautiously avoided the city, pushed his beard under his chin, and held it there by a fold of his turban, which also half covered his face, to prevent being recognised. He passed near the new cantonments, and, by a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, he was not encountered by any of the Shah’s people, from whom, assuredly, he would have had no mercy, but arrived, without the least interruption, in the neighbourhood of the Peshawar gate [British name for the Shah-i Shahid gate], at the time the Envoy was returning from his ride to the Bala Hissar. He followed at a distance, was challenged by the sentries at the gate; but declaring himself a courier, with dispatches from the Kohistan, he was allowed to go on. He moved forward through the bazaar street, and by the new barracks, and then, well knowing every turn of the locality, dispatched the horseman to announce his coming to the Envoy. ... [pp. 357-8] This is largely confirmed in an account recorded from Afghan sources by Fayz Muhammad in the early 19th century : ... and so the amir headed for Kabul. Near Qal’ah-i Mahmud Khan Bayat [which was on the north side of the river, by the bridge that lay between the cantonments and the Bala Hissar], ... he crossed a bridge and near the Bala Hisar ran into Sir William Hay Macnaghten who had left the citadel to take a leisurely ride escorted by regular cavalry who rode in front and behind him as well as on both sides. Just at that moment he was returning to the Bala Hisar. Na’ib Sultan Khan, riding up slowly behind the English officer’s party, asked the troopers at the rear of the escort when they passed through the Shah-i Shahid Gate into the Bala Hisar, who it was astride the lead horse, riding in such a pompous manner. They replied, “It is Sir William Hay Macnaghten.” Then, at a signal from the Amir-i Kabir, the Na’ib conveyed the news of the amir’s arrival to Sir William. The latter was completely nonplussed by this, because the English had pursued the retreating sardars deep into Kuhistan and had made things difficult for them there. So he asked Na’ib Sultan Khan whether the amir had come with an army. The na’ib was about to reply when the amir himself rode up. Sir William Hay Macnaghten recognized him and both men dismounted. After exchanging formal greetings the Englishman took the Amir-i Kabir by the hand and led him to a bagh which the Amir-i Kabir himself had developed and planted with trees and herbs. Together they then went indoors. ... [pp. 268-9] We know from other sources that the British Mission was at that time still based in the main garden of the lower part of the Bala Hissar and was using a pavilion on its south side, which had been built by Dost Muhammad Khan. So this all fits. A plan of the Bala Hissar, drawn in 1839 by Lieutenant Sturt of the Bengal Engineers marks the barracks that had been newly built (and which, after the British had moved out to the cantonment north of the river, was used by Shah Shuja for some of his harem). On an extract from the plan, it is possible to plot almost exactly where the surrender occurred. It is rather a pity that Atkinson did not draw the complete picture, with the buildings in the background. So, far from being in open country, the surrender happened within a dusty corner of the Bala Hissar (marked with an X on the second illustration). Dost Muhammad Khan then went into exile in India, but returned in 1843 and ruled for a further twenty years, living a short distance from the very spot where he had surrendered. Bill Woodburn February 2017