Numbers of skilled artizans were constantly employed in the manufacture of rifled cannon and breach-loading small arms.

More than a million pounds of powder, and I believe several million rounds of home-made Snider ammunition, were in the Bala Hissar at the time of the late explosion.

Swords, helmets, uniforms, and other articles of military equipment were stored in proportionate quantities.
Finally, Sher Ali had expended upon the construction of the Sherpur cantonments an astonishing amount of labour and money.

The extent and cost of this work may be judged of from the fact that the whole of the troops under my command will find cover during the winter within the cantonment, and the bulk of them in the main line of rampart itself, which extends to a length of nearly two miles under the southern and western slopes of the Bimaru hills.
Sher Ali's original design was apparently to carry the wall entirely round the hills, a distance of nearly five miles, and the foundations were already laid for a considerable portion of this length.

All these military preparations were quite unnecessary except as a provision for contemplated hostilities with ourselves, and it is difficult to understand how their entire cost could have been met from the Afghan treasury, the gross revenue of the country amounting only to about eighty lakhs of rupees per annum.
7.