These are believed to be chiefly in Herat and Turkistan.
The number of rifles entered in the Government books as having been issued to the troops are—
English Sniders 5,000 ” Enfields 15,000 ” Rifled Carbines 1,200 ” Brunswick Rifles 1,400 ” Tower muskets 1,000 ” Cavalry Pistols 1,045 Cabuli Sniders 2,189 ” Enfields 8,212 ” Rifled Carbines 589 Kandahari Enfields 453 Herati Enfields 516 Various kinds for Cavalry (double-barrelled, &c.) 1,553 Smooth-bores (probably many Tower Muskets) 1,418 Flint Muskets 1,300 ———— Total 49,875 ————
Of these 742 English Enfields, 560 English Sniders, and 5,427 muskets, Cabuli Sniders and Enfields, flint muskets, &c., have been given up, leaving 43,146 small-arms in the country.
It is worth noticing that no information could be got as to whence the English rifled carbines, Brunswick rifles, Tower muskets, and cavalry pistols were obtained. The “Brown Besses” were, perhaps, part of those taken in 1841-42. This estimate of arms, it should be remembered, takes no account of the many thousands of _jhezails_, native pistols, &c., in the hands of the tribesmen. The totals are sufficiently great to prove that the late Shere Ali had placed Afghanistan on such a military footing, that he may well have believed he could, with the mountain barriers between Cabul and India, defy any force the British could spare to send against him. He was grievously mistaken; his weakness lying in the want of discipline among his troops, and the incapacity of their leaders.