Note 213 — Chapter IV

General Pollock officially reported Captain Conolly’s death from Caubul, in a letter dated September 30; but he added: “The only authority for the death of this very intelligent officer is conveyed in a Persian letter from a native of Caubul, who writes from Bokhara to Moollah Ahmed Khan, of this city, saying, ‘Tell Moostafah (Captain A. C.’s servant) that his uncle, whom he left here sick, saying he was a great traveller and had visited Kokund, was taken very ill, and though we gave him medicine and did all in our power, it was of no avail. It was the will of God that he should die.’ Moostafah and Moollah Ahmed Khan are both of opinion that Captain A. Conolly is the person alluded to, and as the letter proceeds to say that the effects of the deceased are at Bokhara, and can be sent when required; and as Moostafah had no uncle, to whom could the description apply? I fear there can be no reason to doubt the death of the above-named officer. Colonel Stoddart is, from native report, said to be alive, and still in confinement.”—[MS. Records.] This is mere conjecture; and by no means tallies with the more credible account of the execution of the two prisoners. On the 3rd of November, 1842, the Supreme Government assumed that Conolly was still alive. But the home authorities adopted Saleh Mahomed’s story, and struck Stoddart’s name out of the army list, from the 17th of June, 1842. I believe this really to have been the date of their deaths. Major Rawlinson, on the morning of the 16th of September, 1842, met one of Stoddart’s servants near Caubul, and the man whom he knew, informed him that he had come direct from Bokhara, having started immediately after the execution of his master.—[MS. Notes.] The reader may consult the works of Captain Grover and Dr. Wolff.