Mizoram, 1872: Station
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BY LONDON: 1873. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
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Station
Station No. 5 was situated on the site of an old Kookie village about five miles from Tipai Mukh, and No. 6 near the top of the Senvong range, six miles further on.
This last station was reached on the 19th. Fragrant limes, cinnamon, and walnut trees were found on the sites of the old villages ; the limes were a pleasing addition to our hot rum and water after dinner. The village sites passed on the way to No. 6 had belonged to Kookies, and had been deserted in consequence of the aggres- sions of the Lushais. The latter had not occu- pied them, as they were too near our frontier. As our cultivated territory advanced south, the Lushais seem gradually to have withdrawn, keep- ing the boundary line of their villages and culti- vation nearly parallel to that of ours, a belt of impenetrable jungle intervening.
On the 18th some Lushais were met with, who ran away, but shortly after the exploring party came up again with some of them, who said they were Kholel men.
Two of these returned to camp in the evening; and from their statements it appeared that a large number of Lushais were collected at the Tuibum. These they represented as friendly, but from a remark made by one of them, it was gathered that they had received orders to oppose our pro- gress. The Lushais also said a party of a hundred and fifty men had gone in the direction of the Bu- bans. Notice of this was at once sent back to Tipai Mukh and Mynadhur, with orders to the com- manders at those places to warn all survey and telegraph parties.
In the evening, Darpong and the others asked to be allowed to return to their villages. They evidently expected that a collision would surely take place between us and the Lushais, and were afraid to be found in our camp when such an event should happen.
The Senvong Range
The General, thinking nothing was to be gained by keeping them against their will, decided to let them go; a decision attended, as we shall see hereafter, with the happiest results.
These men left on the 19th, charged with mes- sages to their people, to the effect that our object was to recover the captives taken by Lalboora and Tangdong, and that we had no quarrel with the people of Poiboi or Lalhi, so long as they re- frained from molesting us.
A halt was made on the 20th, in order to get up supplies, and reconnoitre the route onwards. The old route to Kholel was found to have been closed by the Lushais; but another, along the ridge of the hill, was said to lead straight to Vanbong. This latter route turned out to be a very good one, and a camping-ground with good water was discovered at the top of a spur leading to the Tuibum.
The Senvong range is a long, lofty spur, its average elevation being nearly four thousand feet above the level of the sea. It is tolerably open, having once been extensively cultivated, but the old jooms are now covered with long grass. From the higher points of this range, the first extensive views of the Lushai country were ob- tained. Far away to the north-east, stretched the Munipur ranges; to the east, the distant Lushai hills, rising above the lower and nearer ranges ; some clothed in every variety of green, while in others the forest was broken and re- lieved by the warm tints of masses of sandstone and red clay, of which these hills consist.
About fourteen miles to the south-east, a great round-looking mass, sending out long, level spurs, stood up, brown and bare, from the countless jooms upon its face ; and on the spurs north and south, appeared the villages of Tingridum and Chepui ; the gabled ends of new bamboo houses glistening in the sun Uke little whited temples.
Behind these, rose the high and rugged ranges known as Surklang, Muthilen, and Lengteng ; while nearer, appeared the high Kholel Range, on a bare ridge of which we could still discover the site of Voupilal's great village ; and nearer still, across the valley of Tuivai, and hiding the hiUs to the south, was the Yanbong hill, a large level mass, with broad sloping spurs, cleared of a good deal of the forests for the jooms and villages of the people who had lately removed thither from Kholel on the death of Voupilal.
Momrang
Between Kholel and Yanbong, looking down the valley of the Tipai, the scene was closed by an extraordinary hill, called Momrang, sloping gradually away on the east, but ending towards the west in an abrupt precipice, and forming an excellent landmark ; while on the west, the ranges of Rengtipahar, Noonvai, &c., rose one above the other, till lost in the haze of the far off horizon ; and here and there in the valleys below glistened the silvery bends of the Tuivai and its affluents.
On the 22nd, the head-quarters, with Mr, Edgar and Colonel Nuthall's wing of the 44th, descended to the Tuibum stream. This was a difficult and trying march, the spur being very steep, and the jungle thick bamboo, especially near the river.
In several places the Lushais had put up some symbols, intended as warnings to the troops not to advance. One was a small model of a gallows^ made of bamboos, with rough pieces of wood intended to represent men hanging from it ; and another consisted of small strips of bamboo stuck into the trunk of a felled tree, from the wounds of which, a deep red sap, strongly resembling blood, exuded — indicating to the troops the fate that awaited them if they persisted in the advance.
At the spot where the path comes out on the Tuibum, was a weir made of bamboo and stones for catching fish, and on the opposite bank was a bamboo watch-house raised some twelve feet from the ground. On this weir, and beneath this house, some forty or fifty Lushais were collected. They yelled out to our men to turn back, and made threatening demonstrations. It was explained to them, as before, that no harm was intended them if they offered no opposition to our advance, and that our path led us that way, and the General was determined to follow it; the General moreover ordered the 44th not to fire unless attacked first.
The advance was then continued over the weir, and the Lushais retired without firing, but still shouting. As we proceeded onwards we soon came to another bend of the river, where it had
to be forded. Here ensued another parley, the Lushais wishing us to wait where we were, and their Muntries would be sent in to the General.
Advance on Kholel
These attempts to stop the advance were re- peated without success at each ford till at last the Tuivai itself was crossed, and the Lushais dis- appeared. The force encamped on the bank of the Tuivai, near its junction with the Tuibum.
In the evening a reinforcement of fifty men of the 22nd, under Major Stafford, arrived; and the next day, the 23rd, it was determined, by marching on Kholel, to give the Lushais no oppor- tunity of strengthening their position if they wished to fight. So leaving a guard in camp, the General took the rest of his force up the hill.
The ascent was through thick jungle, and very steep. Colonel Roberts was in firont with the advanced guard, and as he arrived at the edge of the joom, a Kookie constable , named Panek, pointed out that there were some Lushais in the joom-house. The Colonel then waited to get the men together, a matter of considerable difficulty, owing to the narrowness of the path.
As the foremost skirmishers debouched upon the joom, they were received by a volley from the Lushais, by which Panek was dangerously wounded. The 22nd then charged, and the Lushais fired one more volley and disappeared over the crest of the hills above.
The joom-house was found to be full of grain, which was at once destroyed, and the little force continued its toilsome ascent^ driving the Lushais from joom to joom. The tactics adopted by the latter were to post themselves at the top of each steep ascent, in positions commanding the entrance to the jooms, and as the foremost men came out into the open, to fire a volley at them and dis- appear into the heavy jungle.
Of course their style of fighting, the steep- ness of the hillside, and the denseness of the forest, all favoured the Lushais, and were against us. From frequent traces of blood found about, it was tolerably evident that the enemy did suffer much, loss ; but of course it was impossible to ascertain its extent, as the Lushais have a superstition that if the head of a man slain in battle falls into the hands of his enemy, the man himself becomes the slave of the victor in the next world ; and conse- quently they will make any effort to carry off their dead and wounded, or to conceal them till the enemy has retired. On the other hand they spare no pains, and often fear no danger, in the endeavour to obtain the heads of their enemies.
Destruction
Storehouses full of grain were found in each joom, which were all destroyed ; and after skirmish- ing up the hill for about three hours, two villages recently constructed were reached and burnt down. A third, near which a stream of water was found, the General determined to occupy, and he sent back to the camp on the Tuivai for the baggage; in the meantime continuing the march to Kalhi's chief village, which had been seen from Senvong, and was near the summit of the Vanbong ridge. It was at last discovered at a height of three thousand three hundred feet above the camp of the morning.
The Lushais made an attempt to defend the village, but the 44th drove them out, losing two men in the assault. The village was then burnt, and the troops returned to the one pre- viously fixed upon for occupation. Shortly after their arrival the Lushais commenced firing into the camp from the forest which surrounded it closely, and wounded a sentry of the 22nd. Two other men of this regiment had also been wounded, one dangerously, in the course of the skirmishing.
Doolies, a kind of canvas hammock slung on a long pole, and carried on the shoulders of a couple of coolies, always accompanied the troops, for the conveyance of the wounded.
Shots were exchanged between the Lushais and our sentries all through the night. Two flint-locks were picked up in the morning near the left picket, and the ground all round was stained with blood.
Major Stafford patrolled down to the camp on the Tuivai to get up supplies, skirmishing with the enemy each way.
The General also, with Colonel Roberts and a party of the 44th, under Captain Robertson, went out to another village to the south. This was carried at a rush by the Goorkhas, and shared the fate of the villages on the previous day. In this affair only one man was wounded.
While this was going on, some of the troops left in camp were employed in clearing the jungle round the village, a work which was attended with good results; as the Lushais, deprived of cover dose to the sentries, did not annoy them much during the night.
Christmas Day
The next day — Christmas Day — the 44th went out again, under Captains Lightfoot and Robert- son, and burnt some twenty well-filled granaries. They secured the body and gun of one Lushai, which were sent into camp. The casualties on their side were four men wounded, one of whom was badly hit in the forehead.
Major Stafford also patrolled down to the lower camp and back again, fighting each way.
The Kookies in camp were greatly excited when the Lushai's body was taken in, and were very anxious to cut off his head, but of course they were not allowed to do so. Old Raipa, on finding that he could not have his desire upon his enemy, set up a dismal wail which must have been heard for miles.
In the evening all the officers assembled at the head-quarter mess, to keep up as far as possible the semblance of Christmas. They sat at a table raised in a conspicuous position, with candles burning before them, and Lushais firing from the jungle close by.
Whether from some idea that the death of a white man would be more severely revenged than that of a Sepoy, or from some superstitious notion, it is impossible to say; but notwithstand- ing the excellent mark which the dinner-table and its lights presented to them, no shots were fired in that direction, though single sentries posted quite near to it were hit.
Another curious fact is that, when some songs were sung after dinner, the Lushais stopped firing altogether while the singing lasted, com- mencing again when the song was over.
While occupying this village, it was discovered that the path which would take us in the direc- tion of Lalboora passed by old Kholel, and that consequently a mistake had been made in coming up to the new Kholel villages. It was therefore determined to retire to the weir across the Tuibum, where were Colonel Stafibrd's wing of the 22nd and the Sappers, and seek for the path thence to Poiboi.
Apparent Retreat
Moreover, the village which we then occupied was not tenable for any length of time, the Lushais getting daily more wary and skilful ; and being favoured by the jungle they made the camp too hot for our troops.
Two shots closely following each other, and invariably coming from the same spot, induced the. idea that one of the Lushais was armed with a double-barrelled gun, and was a better marks- man than his fellows. It was found afterwards, however, that two men, brothers, hunted together. We also learned subsequently that one of them was killed in a skirmish, and no more was heard of the double barrel.
On the 26th, when it was determined to return to the Tuibum a Goorkha, Robertson's orderly, was shot through the heart as he was rolling up the bedding from which his master had just risen, in a house in the midst of the village.
As the return to the weir must have looked to the Lushais very much like a retreat, it was neces- sary to keep them in ignorance of that movement as long as possible, and by occupying their attention prevent them from following their usual
tactics of lying in wait for the long string of coolies and followers, and firing into it.
The retreat was executed most successfully and skilfully. The 22nd formed the advance. The baggage and sick were sent on in front, under the protection of some of the 44th, distributing a couple of files between the coolies at short intervals. The remainder of the 44th formed the rear-guard, and were accompanied by the General himself, and Colonel Roberts.
The Goorkhas
The day was bright and clear, the air crisp and cold, and below in the valley lay the soft white mist, as the first detachment moved out of the village. The 22nd had, as before men- tioned, patrolled down to the Tuivai for two days in the same manner, and did not excite any notice on the part of the Lushais, who were busily en- gaged in exchanging shots with the picquets. The coolies were thus all got safely out of the camp ; the picquets were driven in, and the village fired by a party of Kookies. The Lushais then dis- covered the manoeuvre, but too late, for the coolies were well ahead, and the rear-guard was between them. They tried, however, wherever the nature of the ground gave them a chance, to get by the rear-guard and attack the coolies ; but they were baffled by the Goorkhas, "who," in the words of one of the staff-officers present, " extending rapidly where the ground allowed, retired through their supports as if on parade." The troops were admirably led by Colonel Nuthall and Captain Robertson.
