View source for Mizoram, 1852: Tuibum

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This article is an extract from <br/>


'''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION '''  <br/>
1871-1872<br/>

BY<br/>
R.G. WOODTHORPE.<br/>
LIEUT. ROYAL ENGINEERS.<br/>

LONDON:<br/>
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, <br/>
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.<br/>

1873.<br/>
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[[Category:India|M ]]
[[Category:Places|M ]]
=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stockade at the Tuivai camp, was withdrawn the 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.