Diary of a March through Sinde and Affghanistan, with the Troops under the Command of General Sir William Nott, K.C.B., &c. and Sermons delivered on Various Occasions during the Campaign of 1842. Allen, Rev. I. N. Central Asia,Military

First edition. 8vo. pp. viii, 468, [4, ads.]; folding litho. frontis., 7 other lithos.; a little shaken in original cloth, gilt, rebacked with original spine laid down, now contained in a custom-made fall-down back box which also houses the author's Afghan "Victoria Vindex" medal, with also a letter from the War Medal Department of Stanley Gibbon's Currency Limited concerning the medal s provenance. A record of the first Anglo-Afghan war (1838-42). The Reverend Isaac Nicholson Allen was assistant chaplain to the East India Company's Bombay establishment who, under the command of General William Nott, witnessed the heavy defeat of the Afghans in Nott s revenge for the thousands of British and Indian troops, families and camp followers massacred in the Khyber Pass retreat in 1842. He intersperses his descriptions of the destruction wrought during the campaign with pleas for humanity, and his sermons are included with a message of hope. Allen offers compelling sketches of lower and upper Since, the Bolan and Kojuk passes, Ghuznee, Kandahar, and the Dooraunee empire. This copy is offered together with the medal awarded to Allen for his part in the campaign, to which reference is made in the book: "While at Ferozepore, every day was marked by some circumstance of rejoicing; the distribution of honours and medals, (for which last a militant chaplain may be pardoned the expression of his gratification at finding that his own coat was no absolute disqualification,)". (p.373).