期刊名称：International Institute for Asian Studies Annual Report
出版年度：2002
期号：27
出版社：International Institute for Asian Studies
摘要：Little is known of his personal life. He appears to have been well educated, knew Latin and Greek, and was fluent enough in Italian and French to be thought Italian by a Frenchman and French by an Englishman. A contemporary in Kabul in 1832 says that he had “grey eyes, red beard, with the hair of his head close cut. He had no stockings or shoes, a green cap on his head, and a dervish drinking cup slung over his shoulder”; there is no known portrait. When the British East India Company began funding him to explore the ancient sites around Kabul and Jalalabad in 1833, they thought he was an American from Kentucky. But it soon became apparent that the name Charles Masson was an alias adopted by an enlisted Englishman, James Lewis, after he deserted the Bengal Artillery regiment in July 1827. In return for an official pardon in 1835, he was forced to become a “newswriter”, or spy, for the British in Kabul. His sound political advice on Afghanistan was largely ignored by his superiors and he resigned in disgust in 1838 at the outbreak of the First Anglo-Afghan War (1838-1842). In 1842, he returned to England. He married in 1844 and spent the years until his death in 1853 seeking alternative employment, working on his manuscripts and coin collection, and dreaming of returning to Afghanistan, while trying to live on a meagre pension of £100 per annum. Among his private papers there are monthly lists headed “Should have spent” and “Did spend”, which show that his attempts at budgeting were usually unsuccessful. Under “Avoidable” are basic items like eels, sausages, washing and train fares; one indulgence - gin (1 shilling and 8 pence a week) – and, more touchingly, “baby’s cloak” (19 shillings).The only other personal item that survives is a sheet of paper with the words “Silence must be observed in here” written on it in large letters.
