Memoir of William Watts McNair - J. E. Howard
Memoir of
WILLIAM WATTS McNAIR,
_Late of "Connaught House" Mussooree,
Of the_
INDIAN SURVEY DEPARTMENT,
The First European Explorer of Kafiristan.
_BY J.E. HOWARD._
INSCRIBED TO
THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON,
IN REMEMBRANCE OF
A LIFE MADE HAPPIER BY ITS
RECOGNITION OF RARE AND MODEST WORTH.
MEMOIR.
William Watts McNair, who was born on the 13th September, 1849, joined
the great Indian Survey Department in September, 1867, when he was
only eighteen years old, and served the Government of Her Majesty the
Queen and Empress of India faithfully unto the day of his death, on
the 13th of August, 1889. In the official proceedings or notes of the
Surveyor-General of India, for August, 1889, will be found the
following more than merely formal notice of the services of the
deceased officer of a great but scarcely sufficiently recognised
scientific department of the magnificent Indian Empire of Her Majesty
the Queen-Empress. "The Surveyor-General deeply regrets to announce
the death of Mr. W.W. McNair, Surveyor, 3rd grade, from fever
contracted at Quetta while attached to the Baluchistan Survey Party.
He was granted leave to proceed to Mussooree, where he died on 13th
August. Mr. McNair joined the department on the 1st September, 1867,
and was posted to the Rajputana Topographical Party. The first twelve
years of his service were passed on topographical duty with this party
under Major G. Strahan, R.E., and in the Mysore Party under Majors G.
Strahan and H.R. Thuillier, R.E. From the very first he showed special
aptitude as a plane-tabler, and was soon recognised in the department
as an accomplished surveyor. In the autumn of 1879 he was selected to
accompany the Khyber Column of the Afghan Field Force, and was present
with that force during the severe fighting that occurred before Kabul
in the winter of 1879-80, and the subsequent defence of Sharpur.
Whilst in Afghanistan he mapped a very large portion of hitherto
unknown country, including the Lughman Valley and approaches to
Kafiristan, and the Logar and Wardak Valleys to the south of Kabul. He
explored the Adrak-Badrak Pass with a native escort, and made himself
acquainted with the route from Kabul to Jalalabad, _via_ Lughman,
which was explored by no other European officer. At the close of the
war he was attached to the Kohat Survey, under Major Holdich, R.E.,
and was specially employed in the risky work of mapping the frontier
line from Kohat to Bannu, including a wide strip of trans-frontier
country, and much of the hitherto unmapped Tochi Valley. On the
break-up of the Kohat Survey he was temporarily employed on geodetic
work in one of the Astronomical parties, but was re-transferred to the
frontier when the Baluchistan parties were formed. His chief work in
connection with Baluchistan has been carrying a first-class series of
triangles from the Indus, at Dehra Grhazi Khan to Quetta, which
occupied him to the close of his career. His ability as an observer,
his readiness of resource under unusual difficulties, and his power of
attaching the frontier people to him personally, have been just as
conspicuous throughout this duty as were his energy and success as a
geographical topographer. Apart from his departmental career, he has
won a lasting name as an explorer by his adventurous journey to
Kafiristan in 1883, when on leave. It may be fairly claimed for him
that he was the first European officer who set foot in that
impracticable country, and he is still the best authority on many of
the routes leading to it. His services to geographical science were
recognised by the Royal Geographical Society, who awarded him the
Murchison grant, and there can be little doubt that a distinguished
career was still before him when he was suddenly cut off in the prime
of his life."
To those who know what an Indian Department means, such language of
eulogy, no less truthful than graceful, from so respected a functionary
as the Surveyor-General of India, who knew Mr. McNair personally, will
carry a weight far beyond the official recognition of that deceased
officer's worth to his department. The comparative neglect of a great
scientific department of State, such as the Indian Survey Department
undoubtedly is, as a mere ornamental section of the huge and complicated
machinery of that gigantic Empire called India, is but too often repeated
by a department and its official heads in regarding the merits of the
living and the dead who sacrifice their lives to its achievements; but
in this one instance, at least, it cannot be said that the head of a
department fell beneath his opportunities for doing himself and his
subordinate due honour. It is not always from official neglect, or human
pride and indifference, that this want of sympathy for human labour and
human devotion arises, but rather from the infinite preoccupations and
monotonous overwork of the faculties of all public servants of any
position of importance in that vast continent of swarming bees intent on
their day's labour and nothing else. It is a good token for the future
that men shall feel their labour is appreciated, although a desire for
official recognition may be no incentive to the devotion itself. It is
certain that William McNair always valued the appreciation of his
official superiors, and that nothing could have given him greater
pleasure or more comfort, in his review of his own brief labours, than to
have known he would be thus remembered by the head of his own department.
To natures that regard the daily associations of an arduous career as
giving a sanctification all their own, the testimony of colleagues--and,
most of all, of the responsible mouthpiece of those colleagues--is
specially and naturally dear. Within this period of twenty-two years'
faithful service to the State occurred the remarkable exploit, the
account of which, as read in a paper before the Royal Geographical
Society of London, on the 10th December, 1883, I transcribe into this
memoir direct from the proceedings of that society, published in the
number for January, 1884, in the following words, giving the substance
of what was said by the President of the society, who introduced the
lecturer, and the several speakers who raised a discussion on the subject
of the paper after it had been read.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.[1]
_A Visit to Kafiristan_. By W.W. MCNAIR.
(Read at the Evening Meeting, December 10th, 1883.)
[1] In order to let the reader see how perfect was the disguise of
McNair during his Kafiristan expedition, I have prefixed to this Memoir
a portrait of McNair, taken a year or two before his death, and to the
paper read before the Royal Geographical Society, the group attired as
on their journey, with McNair in the centre, and his Mahommedan friends
around him.
In introducing Mr. McNair to the meeting, the President (Lord Aberdare)
said that the paper he was about to read was an account of a visit he
had recently made to Kafiristan. Mr. McNair had resided in India for a
long time previous to his adventurous journey, and whilst in the
service of the Topographical Department in the North-west of India, had
been employed in surveys beyond the frontier of Afghanistan. His
attention was thus directed to the interesting country which the paper
would describe. Kafiristan was a country of very peculiar interest. The
name Kafiristan, or the "country of infidels," was a nick-name given by
the surrounding Mahommedans, and was not that by which it was called by
the natives. It had long been a reproach to English geographers that
the only accounts of Kafiristan had been obtained through Orientals
themselves, whose statements had never been tested by the actual visit
of Europeans to the country. The consequence was that a sort of mystery
surrounded Kafiristan,--so much so that Colonel Yule, when discussing
an interesting paper by Colonel Tanner, on a visit he made to the
borders of the Kafir country three years ago, said that when Kafiristan
was visited and explored the Royal Geographical Society might close the
doors, because there would be no more new work to be done. The veil had
at last been drawn aside. It might be asked why the country had been so
long held inaccessible. The explanation was that the inhabitants were
always at war with their Mahommedan neighbours, by whom they were
surrounded on all sides, and who had been extremely jealous of their
communication with European travellers. Mr. McNair had penetrated
Kafiristan in disguise. He (the President) had had an opportunity of
seeing the paper, and he found that Mr. McNair had not dwelt upon the
historical geography of Kafiristan, and therefore he would say a few
words on that subject. As long ago as 1809, Kafiristan attracted the
attention of one of the ablest public servants that England ever sent
out to India--Mountstuart Elphinstone--who was anxious to add to his
"History of Kabul" something about the people of Kafiristan; and
knowing that it was inaccessible to Europeans, he employed an Indian, a
man of learning and intelligence, to travel there and obtain all the
information he could. It was curious to notice how faithful the report
of his emissary was. The people of the country were described in the
following words: "The Kafirs were celebrated for their beauty and their
European complexions. They worshipped idols, drank wine in silver cups
or vases, used chairs and tables, and spoke a language unknown to their
neighbours." Their religion seems to have been a sort of debased Deism:
they believed in a God; at the same time they worshipped a great number
of idols, which they said represented the great men that had passed
from among them; and he described a scene at which he had been present,
when a goat or a cow was sacrificed, and the following prayer, pithy
and comprehensive, although not remarkable for charity, was offered up:
"Ward off fever from us. Increase our stores. Kill the Mussulmans.
After death admit us to Paradise." Killing the Mussulman was a
religious duty which the Kafirs performed with the greatest fidelity
and diligence. In fact, no young man was allowed to marry until he had
killed a Mussulman. They attached the same importance to the killing of
a Mussulman as the Red Indians did to taking the scalp of an enemy.
Their number did not appear to exceed 250,000. They inhabited three
valleys, and small as their number was they were constantly at war with
each other, and seized upon the members of kindred tribes in order to
sell them as slaves. The women were remarkable for their beauty; and
Sir Henry Rawlinson once said at one of their meetings that the most
beautiful Oriental woman he ever saw was a Kafir, and that she had,
besides other charms, a great mass of golden hair, which, let loose and
shaken, covered her completely from head to foot like a veil. In order
to show what was the state of our knowledge of the country down to
1879, he would read part of a paper by Mr. Markham on "The Upper Basin
of the Kabul River." "This unknown portion of the southern watershed of
the Hindu Kush is inhabited by an indomitable race of unconquered
hill-men, called by their Muslim neighbours the Siah-posh
(black-clothed) Kafirs. Their country consists of the long valleys
extending from the Hindu Kush to the Kunar river, with many secluded
glens descending to them, and intervening hills affording pasturage for
their sheep and cattle. The peaks in Kafiristan reach to heights of
from 11,000 to 16,000 feet. The valleys yield crops of wheat and
barley, and the Emperor Baber mentions the strong and heady wine made
by the Kafirs, which he got when he extended his dominion to
Chigar-serai in 1514. The Kafirs are described as strong athletic men
with a language of their own, the features and complexions of
Europeans, and fond of dancing, hunting, and drinking. They also play
at leap-frog, shake hands as Englishmen, and cannot sit cross-legged on
the ground. When a deputation of Kafirs came to Sir William Macnaghten
at Jalalabad, the Afghans exclaimed: 'Here are your relations coming!'
From the days of Alexander the Great the Siah-posh Kafirs have never
been conquered, and they have never embraced Islam. They successfully
resisted the attacks of Mahmud of Ghazni, and the campaign which Timur
undertook against them in 1398 was equally unsuccessful. But the Muslim
rulers of Kabul continued to make inroads into the Siah-posh country
down to the time of Baber and afterwards. Our only knowledge of this
interesting people is from the reports of Mahommedans, and from an
account of two native missionaries who penetrated into Kafiristan in
1865. Elphinstone obtained much information respecting the Kafirs from
one Mullah Najib in 1809; and Lumsden from a Kafir slave named
Feramory, who was a general in the Afghan service in 1857. Further
particulars will be found in the writings of Burnes, Wood, Masson,
Raverty, Griffith, and Mohun Lal." In recent years, Major Biddulph
entered from Kashmir, through Gilgit, and made his way to Chitral, and
Colonel Tanner advanced from Jalalabad a short distance into
Kafiristan, among a portion of the people who had been converted to
Mahommedanism, but who still retained many of the peculiarities of the
Kafir race. Dr. Leitner had also taken great pains to obtain
information about this ancient and unconquered people but Mr. McNair
was the first European who had ever penetrated into Kafiristan.
Mr. McNair then read as follows:--
In the September number of this Society's "Proceedings," p. 553, under
the heading "An Expedition to Chitral," allusion is made to my being
accompanied by a native explorer known "in the profession" as the
Saiad; it is to this gentleman that I am indebted for the partial
success that attended our undertaking. I say partial advisedly,
inasmuch as the original programme we had marked out, of penetrating
into the heart of Kafiristan, fell through, for reasons that will
appear as I proceed with the narrative.
The Saiad, whose name I need not mention, had been made over to me more
than a year ago by Major Holdich to instruct. This led to a mutual
friendship, and on his explaining to me that he had a plan of getting
into the Kafir country, which was by accompanying Meahs Hosein Shah and
Sahib Gul (who yearly go to Chitral either through Dir or via the Kunar
Valley) as far as Birkot and then following up the Arnawai stream,
crossing the hills to the westward and returning to Jalalabad either by
the Alingar or Alishang rivers, I suggested accompanying him in the
guise of a Hakim or Tabib, _i.e._, native doctor. He was to be
accompanied by Meah Gul, a Kafir convert. The two Meahs of course had
to be consulted, and after some difficulty I succeeded in getting their
consent, having convinced them that the undertaking was entirely at my
own risk, and that in the event of my detection they would be freed
from all responsibility. I next sent in my papers for a year's furlough
with permission to spend the first half in India. This was granted, and
my leave commenced from March 27th. By April 9th I was at Nowshera, and
by three o'clock on the following morning, with head shaved, a weak
solution of caustic and walnut juice applied to hands and face, and
wearing the dress peculiar to the Meahs or Kaka Khels, and in company
with Hosein Shah, I sallied out as Mir Mahomed or Hakim Sahib.
It may not be out of place if I here mention that the Kaka Khel section
of Pathans, to which the two Meahs belong, are not only very
influential, but are respected throughout both Afghanistan and
Badakshan. The Kafirs also pay them a certain amount of respect, and
will not knowingly attack them, owing to an epidemic of cholera which
once broke out amongst them immediately after they had returned from
murdering a party of Kaka Khels, and which they superstitiously
attributed to their influence. They number in all a few short of 3,500;
this includes menials and followers. Though really considered spiritual
advisers they are virtually traders, and I do not think I am far wrong
in saying that they have the monopoly of the trade from Kabul eastward
to the borders of Kashmir territory. If you say that you are a Meahgan
or Kaka Khel, words signifying one and the same thing, you have not
only access where others are questioned, and a sort of blackmail levied
on them, but you are treated hospitably, and your daily wants supplied
free of cost--as was often the case with us. Of course the Meaghans
have to make some return. It is done in this wise: a fair lasting from
five to seven days is yearly held at Ziarat, a village five miles
south-west of Nowshera, the resting-place of the saint Kaha Sahib; it
is resorted to by thousands from across our north and east frontiers,
and all comers are housed and fed by the Meahs collectively. Offerings,
it is true, are made to the shrine, but I am told the amount collected
is utilised solely for the keeping up of the shrine.
What follows is taken from my diary, which I stealthily managed to keep
up during my journey. It was not till April 13th that we were fairly
across the British frontier. The interval of four days was spent in
getting together all necessaries. The rendezvous was for the 13th at
Ganderi, and true to appointment all were present, our party then
consisting of forty, including muleteers, and fifteen baggage animals.
In the shape of provisions, we had nothing but sugar and tea. The
contents of our loads (I should say goods, only that we got very little
in return) were cloths of English manufacture, musical boxes,
binoculars, time-pieces, a spare revolver or two with a few rounds of
ammunition, salt, glass beads, shells, needles, country-made
looking-glasses, shoes, and lungis, as well as several phials and
galipots of medicines. In addition to these I had secreted a prismatic
and magnetic compass, a boiling point and aneroid thermometer, and a
plane-table which I had constructed for the occasion. The
last-mentioned instrument answered famously the purpose for which it
was intended, and was in use from the beginning to almost the end of my
journey. It answered, in case of a surprise, to pass off for a tabib
book of prescriptions; all that was necessary was to slip off the paper
that was in use inside one of the folds and expose to the gaze of the
inquisitive individual merely a book or rather the outer case of one,
in which I had written several recipes in Urdu. The instruments were
either carried by the Saiad or myself in a _gooda, i.e._, untanned skin
of goat or sheep invariably used by travellers in this region.
The Malakand Pass (elevation 3,575 feet) is well wooded with brushwood
and stunted oak; grass and a goodly supply of water from springs are
procurable all through the year. The ascent is easy, and practicable
for heavy baggage. The descent into the Swat Valley is not nearly so
easy; beasts of burden as well as foot passengers have to pick out
their way, but a company of Bengal or Madras sappers would in a few
hours clear all difficulties sufficiently well to allow a mule battery
to keep up with infantry. When once in the plains this state of things
changes; where previously one had to avoid loose rocks and boulders, we
had now to search for a dry spot on which to alight. Both banks of the
rivers are irrigated; the soil is very rich, and well adapted for rice
cultivation. The valley has the reputation of being very unhealthy,
owing, I have no doubt, to the effluvia arising from the damp soil. A
Swatie is easily recognised by the sallow appearance he presents--a
striking contrast to his nearest neighbours.
The Swat river is about 50 feet wide, from three to four deep, and
flush with its banks. We crossed over in _jalas_ (_i.e._ inflated
skins) opposite the large village of Chakdara; the loads were taken
off, and our animals forded the stream with little or no difficulty.
Almost due north of our crossing, and distant eight miles, lay the
village of Kotigram. The valley, known as the Unch Plain, is somewhat
open, narrowing as we neared the village. Midway, about Uncha, we
passed several topes, or Buddhist remains. These topes are very
numerous, at least twenty were visible at one time, and some of great
size and in a very good state of preservation--more than one quite as
large as the famous tope of Mani Kiyala. A little further up the valley
towards the Katgola Pass, to the left of our route, there were numerous
excavated caves, in the side of the hill, in one of which the traveller
could take shelter during a passing shower. The assent to the Laram
Kotal is easy, and though the south face of this range is somewhat
denuded of both fir and pine, yet the soil is sufficiently rich to
allow of cultivation on its slopes. On this pass, whilst taking some
plane-table observations, I was within an ace of being detected from an
unexpected quarter. Four men armed with matchlocks showed themselves.
Much quicker than it takes me to record it, the rule or sight vane was
run up my long and open sleeve, and I began to pretend to be looking
about for stray roots; the intruders were thrown off the scent, and
after a while assisted the Saiad in looking for odd roots for the
supposed native doctor.
The descent from the pass, which registered 7,310 feet, to Killa Rabat
(3,900 feet) in the Panjkhora Valley, was for the first half of the
distance by a long and densely wooded spur, within an easy slope, but
on nearing the foot we found it very stony. Our party was met at the
entrance by the khan, and later on we were invited to dinner by him.
Long before this I had got quite used to eating with my fingers, but on
this occasion I must admit I found it unpleasant diving the fingers
into a richly made curry floating in grease, and having at the next
mouthful to partake of honey and omelet. The banquet lasted for an hour
or more, and I was beginning to feel uncomfortable sitting on the
ground in the one position so peculiar to Eastern nations, when the
hookah came to my rescue, and allowed of a change in position.
We forded the Panjkhora a little above the fort, and by 5 p.m. reached
Shahzadgai.
We found the chief busy with a durbar he was holding under a large
chinar tree, and discussing the plan of attack on Kunater Fort. Our
introduction was somewhat formal, except in the case of Hosein Shah,
who was very cordially received and publicly thanked for having
responded to the chief's request to bring a doctor from India for him.
Rahmatullah Khan, chief of Dir, is an Eusafzai, ruler of a population
exceeding 600,000. In appearance he is anything but prepossessing--small
of stature and very dark in complexion for a Pathan; with not a tooth in
his head, and the skin on his face loose and wrinkled, he presents the
appearance of an aged man, though really not more than fifty-five.
I was at Shahzadgai seven days, and during that time succeeded in
bringing round the chief, who was suffering from an ordinary cold and
cough. I cannot say my stay was a pleasant one, for from early morn
till dusk our hut was surrounded by patients, and inasmuch as the chief
had recovered, it was considered a sufficient guarantee that, no matter
what the ailment or disease might be, if only the tabib would
prescribe, all would come right. Men with withered arms and legs,
others totally blind, were expected to be cured, and no amount of
persuasion would convince those who had brought such unfortunates that
the case was a hopeless one. It was here that I got as a fee the
antique seal which I have brought for exhibition to the meeting. The
man who brought it had found it across the Panjkhora, opposite
Shahzadgai, whilst throwing up some earthworks; it was then encased in
a copper vessel. General Cunningham, to whom I showed the seal at Simla
about three months ago, writes as follows:--"I am sorry to say that I
cannot make out anything about your seal. At first I thought that the
man standing before a burning lamp might be a fire-worshipper, in which
case the seal would be Persian. I _incline_, however, to think that it
may be an Egyptian seal. I believe that each symbol is one of the
common forms on Egyptian monuments; this can be determined by one
versed in Egyptian hieroglyphics." Since my arrival here I have
submitted the seal to Sir Henry Rawlinson. The fact of its having been
dug up in the Panjkhora Valley adds great interest to the relic.
On the 24th we left for Kumbar. Whilst here it got abroad that my
friend Hosein Shah was accompanied by two Europeans in disguise. The
originator of this report was no other than Rahat Shah Meah, a native
in the confidence of our Indian Government, and enjoying the benefits
of a _jagir_ or grant of land in the district of Nowshera, given him
for loyal services, but a sworn enemy of my two friends. He had sent
letters to Asmar, Chitral, Swat, and Bijour, urging on the people to
track out the Kafirs who were in company with the Meagans, and destroy
them, as they could have gone with no other purpose than to spy out the
land. Shao Baba took up the matter, and not until the Dir chief had
written contradicting the statement and certifying that he had asked my
companions to bring from India a hakim, were suspicions allayed.
Unfortunately, in a country like Afghanistan, where fanaticism is so
rampant, once let it be even surmised that outsiders, and these the
detested Kafirs, are about, the bare contradiction does not suffice,
and the original idea only lies dormant, as our future progress showed.