Tinted lithographed folding panoramic frontispiece, and 7 tinted lithographic plates. Bright pictorial cloth. 8vo. pp. viii, 468, (iv – publisher’s advertisements).

Allen was Assistant Chaplain on the East India Company’s Bombay Establishment, and accompanied Nott’s advance to Kandahar with the 40th Regiment of Foot. The book deals historic events in the Western Marches of India: the disasters of the First Afghan War, and the annexation of Sind. The policies of the British government and the East India Company were severely criticised. Sir John William Kaye had this to say ‘The wisdom of our statesmen is but foolishness, and the might of our armies is but weakness when the curse of God is sitting heavily upon an unholy cause’.