Hitherto the course of events has been recorded
in the impersonal style of history. But henceforward I am able to rely
on my own memory as well as on other people's evidence. [I do not desire
to bore the reader or depreciate the story by the introduction of
personal matters. It will be sufficient if, in the interests of
coherency, I explain my connection with the Malakand Field Force. Having
realised, that if a British cavalry officer waits till he is ordered on
active service, he is likely to wait a considerable time, I obtained six
weeks' leave of absence from my regiment, and on the 2nd of September
arrived at Malakand as press correspondent of the PIONEER and DAILY
TELEGRAPH, and in the hope of being sooner or later attached to the
force in a military capacity.] It may be doubtful whether an historical
record gains or loses value when described by an eye-witness. From the
personal point of view, all things appear in a gradual perspective,
according to the degree in which they affect the individual; and we are
so prone to exaggerate the relative importance of incidents, which we
see, over those we hear about, that what the narrative gains in accuracy
of detail, it may lose in justness of proportion.
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