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'''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION '''
1871-1872
BY
R.G. WOOD..."

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This article is an extract from 

'''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION ''' 
1871-1872 

BY 
R.G. WOODTHORPE. 
LIEUT. ROYAL ENGINEERS. 

LONDON: 
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, 
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 

1873. 
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[[Category:India|M ]]
[[Category:Places|M ]]
=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Lushais seem gradually to have withdrawn, keep-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.

Mizoram, 1872: Station - Revision history

Pdewan: Created page with "{| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article is an extract from '''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION ''' 1871-1872 BY R.G. WOOD..."

Pdewan: Created page with "{| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article is an extract from
'''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION '''
1871-1872
BY
R.G. WOOD..."