Note 255 — Chapter I

The Governor-General, however, seems to have considered it not wholly improbable that the contemplated military movement upon Caubul would be suspended by the favourable conclusion of the negotiations with the enemy; and actually authorised Pollock to exercise his discretion in ordering Nott to retire by Quettah, even though the march upon Ghuznee and Caubul had been commenced.—[Lord Ellenborough to General Pollock: July 29, 1842.] Subsequently the Governor-General seemed to awaken to a sense of the extraordinary character of this suggestion, for he wrote to General Pollock to say that he “could hardly imagine the existence of circumstances which could justify the diversion of Major-General Nott’s army from the route of Ghuznee and of Caubul, when his intention of marching by that route shall have been once clearly indicated.”—[Lord Ellenborough to General Pollock: August 26, 1842.]