Mizoram, 1852: Tuibum
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Tuibum
The Tuibum was reached without a single casualty, a few granaries, which had escaped during the advance, being destroyed on the way.
The camp was formed on a level piece of ground of some extent, close to the fishing weir, and a picquet left during the night, in a small stockade at the Tuivai camp, was withdrawn the next day. This Tuibum encampment was sur- rounded on all sides by steep hills, as usual covered with forest, and the Lushais, concealed among the trees, continued to annoy us by firing into it, and at the working parties. The casual- ties, however, were not numerous, only a coolie and a sapper being wounded.
The route onward was explored on the 27th, and it was found that it ascended the hill soon after leaving the weir, leading up a steep and narrow spur of a hill called Pabarchung.
On the 28th the troops remained in camp, and were joined by Colonel Rattray and his wing of the 42nd A L.D. On the 29th, the General, taking these with him, and accompanied by Cap- tain Badgley, went back to the burnt villages.
The principal object of this Expedition was to show the Lushais that, though the force had re- tired from that particular hill, they were by no means to conclude that it could not return to it, for that till they (the Lushais) made submission they would get no peace.
As soon as the detachment left the camp, it was fired into from all sides, and one man was slightly wounded.
Coming out on to a joom, after ascending the hill for some little distance, the foremost of the party saw some Lushais, who fired at them and disappeared, not without the loss of one of their number, whom they carried ofi^, leaving his musket, cloth, &c., where he fell.
The cry of Peace
Near the first village burnt on the 23rd, as the leading skirmisher was making his way along a narrow path, a man wearing a yellow cloak and waving a red puggree appeared suddenly before him. Fortunately Captain Butler, who was just behind, recognised him as Darpong, and stopped the advance till the General and Mr. Edgar went up to the front and heard what he had to say ; which was that he had been sent by Poiboi to stop hostilities at Kholel, and to make peace for the villages, and that Poiboi's brother was on his way to make terms for their own villages.
The General consented to a temporary cessa- tion of hostilities ; and when he understood this, Darpong climbed up into a dead tree, sounded the cry of peace to the invisible foes in the jungle, and from that moment all firing ceased. Then going on to the village, Mr. Edgar proceeded to arrange preliminaries with Darpong. The latter promised that all firing should stop along our route, and that our communications should be kept open for us, a promise which was most religiously kept; for though on that afternoon Colonel Davidson was fired at a few miles out of camp, on his way to Tipai Mukh, by some Lushais who could not then have got news of the truce. yet with this exception the roads were from that moment perfectly safe for d&k-nmners, coolies bringing up supplies, &c.
Captain Badgley went to the top of the hill and took some observations, and then the party re- turned to camp.
While at the village, a great many Lushais were hanging about afraid to approach their late enemies; but some officers went out to meet them; and some
'* A little of ns by onr signs did learn, Then went their way, and so at last all fear Was laid aside, and thronging they drew near, To look npon ns — "
and upon our swords and revolvers, which they examined with great interest.
The General remained at the Tuibum camp till the 6th January, this delay being necessary in order to get up sufficient supplies for a further advance, as, in the rapid march on Kholel, these had been overrun, as well as to complete the com- munications with Tipai Mukh ; the time was spent in getting up these supplies, and commencing the road over Pabarchung, and by Mr. Edgar in constant interviews with the representatives of the north and north eastern Lushais.
The Kholel Affair
Mr. Edgar tells us that the following is the Lushai version of the kholel business, as far as he could learn it from themselves. It will be re- membered I mentioned, in a former chapter, that Voupilal’s people were divided, after his death, in their allegiance between his widow and mother ; the former of whom lives at Vanbong (New Kholel). When our advance was made on Kholel the adherents of the latter, being generally the older people of the tribe, remembered the fate of their villages in Colonel Lister’s Expedition, and wished to make a show at any rate of friend- ship, in order to get on to Poiboi in the East, and away from them — while the other and younger party wished to oppose and advance, and dwelt on the fact that in 1849 the force had to hurry out of the country.
On the other hand, if the Kholel people opposed us unsuccessfully, there was danger of all their villages to the west being attacked, and it was equally Poiboi' s interest to keep us, if possible, from reaching his territory. This would account for the Lusbais* remark at No. 6, that the people of vanbong had been ordered to oppose our advance at the Tuibum.
" The two parties do not seem to have come to any decision, but probably there was a tacit compromise that if we did not attempt to visit Yanbong we should not be opposed, and that in this case the Kholel people would keep on out- wardly friendly terms with us, unless we met with some disaster ahead, when they might fall upon us with perfect safety.
- Of course it would have been impossible for
us to accept such a situation. It was almost a necessity for us to make every village behind safe before taking a step in advance. From the position of the New Kholel group of villages it could have done us more injury than any other, and we could not make sure of it without visiting it and leaving a party in a position to command all the villages.*'
The Lushais say that they did not intend to provoke hostilities on the 23rd; but that the rashness of some of their youths committed them to the attack, and then all were compelled to unite in order to get rid of us.
Lushai Hostages
In the return of the troops to Tuibum, leaving some of the villages still standing, they recognised, as they thought, a similar proceeding to that of Colonel Lister, and expected we were now about to leave the country. The people began there- fore to re-occupy their houses and bring back their families from the various places of safety to which they had been sent, and also to harass our communications. Contrary to their expectations, however, when they saw General Bourchier marching towards their villages again on the 29th, instead of retiring as fast as possible on Tipai Mukh, a panic seized them ; and a village council being hastily held, instant submission was urged. The Western people also advised the same step, and those whose villages had been de- stroyed, were compelled to yield with a bad grace.
Then came the difficulty of communicating with us, but Darpong undertook the risk, with what result we have already seen. Three of the Kholel people were given as hostages, to remain with us till our return. These men accompanied us throughout the Expedition, and did very good service on several occasions. One of them named Santong, the survivor of tho two sharp-shooting brothers, could speak a little Hindustani, and he was appointed as guide to the survey party, and used to accompany it to point out the various hills, &c. ; and this he always did, cheerfully ren- dering material assistance to the survey officers.
The establishment of the posts at Bongkong and Koloshib caused these Western Lushais great uneasiness, and it appeared that the advance of the Munipur contingent was influencing for good those to the east. Much anxiety was felt by the General, lest this contingent advancing so far south should actually come into collision with the Eastern tribes, as such an encounter was far from desirable, whatever its immediate result might be, and messengers were despatched to General Nuthall explaining General Bourchier's wishes.
On the 18th January matters were finally settled with the Kholel men, and some commis- saries were sent to Khalkom desiring him to join.
On the 5th, some of Poiboi's men brought in a pig and some fowls, &c., as presents, with assurances of Poiboi's desire to keep on friendly terms with us. They reported that Darpong had not returned from his journey to General Nuthall, but that no fighting had, as yet, taken place between their people and the Munipuris, though the latter were then close to Chiboo.
Tipai Mukh
Before continuing the narrative of the advance, it will be necessary to return to Tipai Mukh, where an event had occurred which had startled that little garrison out of the fancied security they had been enjoying. The troops at that time, at Tipai Mukh, were the Artillery, a wing of the 42nd, under Colonel Sherifi^, and Colonel Hicks' wing of the 44th, the whole being under command of the latter officer.
The days were passed very quietly in erecting godowns, improving the defences, and fishing. Some very fine mahaseer were caught with spoon- bait. Two officers took ninety-one pounds of fish between them in one day, and Captain B. Cookesley, R.A., the day after caught five fish, weighing in all eighty-two pounds, the largest turning the scale at twenty-one and a half pounds.
The news from the front used generally to come in during the night, and was discussed the following morning, during the usual early tea and biscuit over the big camp fire.
Sometimes the Commissariat had a baking day, and a loaf was served out to each officer. On such occasions long bamboo toasting-forks were cut, and the pleasure of making one's own toast was much appreciated.
On Christmas Day some beeves arrived from Mynadhur, after a most adventurous journey, the rafts in which they were having been twice upset in the rapids, and they had to swim for their lives. They were slightly lean, but after tinned mutton were most welcome; and some of the freshly caught mahaseer, this beef, and a whole bottle of beer to each man, formed, as times then were with us, a very fine Christmas dinner^ after which we tried to emulate the usual festivities of the season with a brew of hot grog and a few old songs.
The Artillery and Commissariat elephants were usually sent a little way up the Tipai to graze, but on the morning of the 27th, the mahouts had incautiously taken thirty-six elephants further than they ought; and about 10 o'clock one of them ran into camp, apparently greatly terrified, shouting out that the elephants had been attacked by Lushais, their attendants killed, and the animals driven away up stream.
Attacked By Lushais
The alarm was at once given, and the troops fell in, though, from the mahput’s incoherent manner and confused statements, his tale did not meet, at first, with full credence ; but an elephant, with blood running from seven bullet wounds, appeared almost immediately to prove his story, which further information confirmed, with the addition that the Lushais, numbering about two hundred, were on their way to attack the camp.
The guns were at once placed in position at the east corner of the camp, commanding the Tuivai, and the picquets re-inforced.
These arrangements had just been carried out, wheii a few shots from the jungle on the opposite bank informed us of the vicinity of the enemy. Immediately afterwards, a volley was fired from the picquet on the top of the hill at some figures, seen for a second^ passing through the jungle below.
Some officers passing up the left bank to re- connoitre, were fired at, a bullet nearly finding its billet in one of them. To all the shots fired by the invisible enemy, the troops responded by volleys, with what effect of course could not be known. At length a single shot from our side, fired at a puff of smoke from the enemy's, was followed by groans and cries in Hindustani, upon which the firing ceased.
A party of the 42nd, under Captain Harrison, accompanied by Captain Blackwood, having crossed the Tuivai in boats, proceeded up the river in search of the elephants, and were fol- lowed by a party of gunners in boats. The former had gone about half a mile, when a mahout crawled out of the jungle, with two gun- shot wounds and a spear cut in his left leg and foot. He said that while the mahouts and coolies were loading the elephants with the grass, &c., they were suddenly surprised by about fifty Lushais, who, having fired a volley from the jungle, suddenly with a loud yell rushed out upon them with spears and daos, killing several. He himself was sitting on his elephant when he was wounded, and falling off into the long grass crept away unperceived, and concealed himself till he heard the approach of the Sepoys. He was sent at once into camp, and his wounds attended to; one bullet was extracted, a piece of iron beaten into a slug of irregular shape.
Night In Camp
Proceeding onwards, the party in search of the elephants came upon a few near the scene of the attack, and some of the mahouts who had also managed to escape the fury of the Lushais, on hearing our men, came out and took charge of the animals.
Towards evening the party returned, having succeeded in recovering nine. They also brought a Lushai gourd, cloth and bag, which they had picked up in the jungle whence the enemy had been firing in the morning. They, however, saw nothing whatever of the Lushais, who had disappeared as suddenly as they had come.
Everyone expected that the camp would be fired into during the night, and all lights and fires were ordered to be put out at an early hour. Several times during the evening, young hands beard, as they thought, the sound of gunshots ;
but the more experienced laughed and explained that this noise was caused bj the popping of bamboo in the camp fire. The air between the knots expands with the heat, and the bamboo bursts with a bang, exactly resembling the re- port of a gun.
Everything, however, passed off quietly till about two o'clock in the morning, when a cry was raised of "Lushai," and the whole force turned out at once. It was soon, however, dis- covered that the alarm was caused by a stampede among the elephants, about eighty of which were picketed to the north of the camp. One of them, with his forelegs hobbled, went galloping through the 44th camp, and the mahouts on perceiving him raised the alarm. Everyone soon turned in again.
Early next morning detachments of the Artil- lery and 42nd, under Captains Cookesley and Harrison, proceeded up the river in boats, and recovered all but three of the missing elephants. The former ofiicer says : —
- The jungle along the banks was one tangled
mass of coarse rank grass, varied by stretches of shingly beach, covered here and there with a hardy shrub, the roots of which are interlaced in a manner to puzzle the best equestrian, but through this the elephants were tracked with un- erring precision by the sharp little Goorkhas.'*
Khalkom
The party also discovered and brought back to camp the remains of three of the poor fellows who had been killed by the Lushais. They presented a ghastly spectacle, their bodies having been hacked and mutilated in a most shocking manner ; their heads had been cut off, but not carried away, only the scalps being taken. One of the unfortunates was an old man, and his arms and hands had been cut to pieces, apparently in attempt- ing to ward off the cruel blows of his murderers.
While clearing the jungle near the picquet on the hill, a spear-head was picked up, cut nearly in two by an Enfield bullet ; it must have been knocked off the staff while in the hand of its owner, who had a narrow escape.
I do not think it was ever known to which tribe the men belonged who committed this attack, though an idea gained some credence that Khalkom was the leader, and that he was wounded in this affair. Another rumour attributed the attack to the party returning from Monierkhal, of whose excursion northward notice had been sent from No. 6, as before mentioned.
This was the first and last excitement for those at Tipai Mukh, who thenceforth, to the close of the Expedition, pursued the even tenor of their way uninterruptedly.
The telegraph was completed as far as Tipai Mukh by the 31 st December. The wing of the 42nd which had been working on the last bit of road into camp, which was very difficult and rocky, had been withdrawn when the fighting commenced in front, and this part was not finished for some time — ^the last stage of the journey being performed by water.
