Note 109 — Chapter I

“I have only to repeat,” wrote General Nott, on the 23rd of February, in reply to Major Rawlinson’s official letter on the subject of the evacuation orders received from Caubul, “that I will not treat with any person whatever for the retirement of the British troops from Afghanistan, until I shall have received instructions from the Supreme Government. The letter signed ‘Eldred Pottinger’ and ‘W. K. Elphinstone’ may, or may not, be a forgery. I conceive that these officers were not free agents at Caubul; and therefore their letter or order can have no weight with me.”—[MS. Correspondence.]