Konoma evacuated--Journey to Suchema for provisions and ammunition,
and return--We march to Suchema with General--Visit Manipur--Very
ill--Meet Sir Steuart Bayley in Cachar--His visit to Manipur--Grand
reception--Star of India--Chussad attack on Chingsow--March to
Kohima and back--Reflections on Maharajah's services--Naga Hills
campaign overshadowed by Afghan War.
General Nation had intended to capture Konoma and return to Suchema
at once, but the stout resistance offered by the Nagas upset all
calculations, and we were thus stranded without warm clothing or
provisions on a bleak spot, 5000 or 6000 feet above the sea. I sent
off some of my Naga emissaries, and induced the neutral men of Mozuma
to go to Suchema and bring the bedding of the wounded men and some food
which was done. With difficulty we got enough water to drink, but there
was none for washing, and when at last we sat down on the ground to
eat our frugal meal, the doctors had to eat with hands covered with
blood, indeed, none of our hands were very presentable. At last, to
our great relief, our detached parties returned one by one. Lieutenant
(now Colonel) C. R. Macgregor, D.S.O., a most gallant and capable
officer, had been out all day with only fifteen men, and inflicted
some injury on the Nagas. He was Quartermaster-General of the force,
and did good service throughout. The accession of numbers was a great
relief, as we now had the means of renewing the attack next day, but
ammunition and supplies were required, and Williamson and I volunteered
to go to Suchema for them next day. The night was very cold, but we
managed to sleep all huddled up together, the dead lying all round us.
Early next morning, Williamson and I started with all our coolies and
an escort of fifty men. We saw no signs of the enemy, but came across
several men of the 43rd who had strayed away from their detachments
in the dark and hidden in the jungles. At Suchema we found all right,
but before we got there, we saw our flag flying over Konoma, showing,
as I had expected, that it had been evacuated during the night. This
event immediately made our neutral friends of Mozuma, our allies, and
they gave us hearty assistance, and we took back an ample supply of
provisions. The Mozuma people told us that the Konoma men had never
contemplated the possibility of being driven out, and that they had
stored up 2000 maunds of rice which had fallen into our hands.
The enemy had retired into some fortified stockades called Chukka on
the main range to their rear, a most difficult position to attack. I
offered the General to carry the guns into position for him if he
cared to assault them, but our loss, especially in officers, had been
so great that he declined, and probably he was right, as the risk
was very great if the enemy stood his ground, so the General decided
to await reinforcements. All the same it was to be regretted that we
were unable to deliver two or three blows in rapid succession.
We left a party at Konoma and marched to Suchema with the wounded,
Ridgeway, with great courage, marching all the way on foot, rather
than endure the shaking of an improvised litter. On the 27th, I
joined a force, with which we attacked and destroyed the unfriendly
portion of Jotsuma, a large and powerful village, and on the 29th,
as there was nothing else to do, made a rapid journey to Manipur with
Lieutenant Raban, that he might survey the road as I wanted the trace
for a cart road cut. We returned on December 4th.
On December 6th, Williamson and I started for Golaghat, to meet
Sir Steuart Bayley. At Samagudting I had a perfect ovation, all
the village turning out to see me, and greeting me warmly as an old
acquaintance. Alas! many were suffering from a disease we called Naga
sores, and several had died. The once lovely place looked desolate and
miserable, almost all the fine trees had been ruthlessly cut down by
one of my successors, in a panic, lest they should afford cover for
hostile Nagas. The place looked so sad that I could not bear to stay
there as I had intended, and left again almost directly. We reached
Golaghat on December 9th, and stayed with the Chief Commissioner and
started again on the 12th, and rode fifty-five miles into Dimapur, but
I was not at all well, indeed had been much the reverse for several
days, bad food and hard work having upset me. We reached Suchema on
the 14th.
Overtures for submission were made by some of the hostile villages,
but I said that an unconditional surrender of all fire-arms must
precede any negotiations. Meanwhile, I grew daily worse, and the
doctors told me that I must go to Manipur for change and quiet,
which, as there was nothing to be done just then, I did, leaving
Captain Williamson in charge of the Political Department.
I reached Manipur on December 22nd, and a day or two's rest did me so
much good that I left again on the 27th, and rode to Mythephum, sixty
miles, but was taken ill on the road, and suffered most dreadful pain
for the last twenty miles, arriving completely prostrated. The next
day, being worse, I sent a message to Manipur, asking for the native
doctor and a litter to be sent to meet me, while I got back as far as
Mayang Khang on my pony, though hardly able to sit upright. I halted
here for the night, but had no sleep, and in the morning started in a
rough litter, but the shaking increased the pain, so that I again tried
riding till I reached Kong-nang-pokhee, twenty miles from Manipur,
where, to my intense relief, I found my doolai and our native doctor,
Lachman Parshad. I reached Manipur at 11 P.M.
Next day, December 30th, I was no better, and as the doctor was very
anxious, not understanding my case, which was acute inflammation,
my wife wrote to Dr. O'Brien of the 44th, asking him to come and
see me. I was laid up till January 17th, and only narrowly escaped
with life, my suffering being aggravated by a deficiency of medicine
in our hospital, and a week's delay in getting it from Cachar. One
day I got out of bed to see Thangal Major on very important business
connected with Konoma, of which some of the inhabitants had tried to
open an intrigue with Manipur. Dr. O'Brien arrived about the 13th,
and left on the 18th, and I was preparing to follow in a few days,
when complications on the Lushai frontier detained me, and then as the
Chief Commissioner was about to come up en route to the Naga Hills,
to present the Maharajah with the order of the Star of India in
recognition of his services, I waited till I could march up with him.
On January 30th, I heard that the Baladhun tea factory in Cachar
had been attacked, and a European and several coolies killed by
the Merema clan of Konoma. Knowing that Cachar was badly off for
troops, I asked the Durbar to send two hundred men to the frontier,
close to the tea factory, to aid the Cachar authorities, and this
was done. On February 6th, I started for Cachar to meet the Chief
Commissioner, reaching that place on the 7th, and marched back with
him, arriving at Manipur on February 20th, where he was received with
every demonstration of respect, the Maharajah turning out with all
his court to meet him at the usual place, and escorting him to the
spot where the road turned off to the Residency.
The Chief Commissioner's visit gave the greatest satisfaction to
every one in Manipur. He stayed five days, during which he had several
interviews with the Maharajah, and held a grand Durbar, at which he
invested him with the star and badge of a K.C.S.I. He also attended a
review held by the Rajah, besides seeing all the sights of the place,
including a game of polo by picked players. In fact the visit was a
thorough success, and the Manipuris often spoke of it with pleasure
years afterwards.
Just before we started for the Naga Hills, I received the news of an
attack by the Chussad Kukis on the Tankhool village of Chingsow, to
the north-east of Manipur, forty-five people were said to have been
killed or carried off; and the excitement was all the greater from
the belief entertained that the attack had been instigated by the
Burmese. I determined, after consultation with Sir Steuart Bayley,
to proceed to the spot myself, and investigate the whole affair;
and it was, therefore, decided that, after escorting him to Kohima,
I should return to Manipur and take up the case. We marched to Kohima,
which we reached on March 1st, and on the 2nd, I returned to Mao,
en route to Manipur, where I arrived on March 5th.
Before leaving the subject of the Naga Hills, I ought to say, that,
it is difficult to over-estimate our obligation to the Maharajah,
for his loyal conduct during the insurrection and subsequent
troubles. According to his own belief, we had deprived him of
territory belonging to him, and which he had been allowed to claim as
his own. The Nagas asked him to help them, and promised to become his
feudatories, if only he would not act against them. The temptation must
have been strong, to at least serve us as we deserved, by leaving us
in the lurch to get out of the mess, as best as we could. Instead of
this, Chandra Kirtee Singh loyally and cheerfully placed his resources
at our disposal, and certainly by enabling me to march to its relief,
prevented the fall of Kohima, and the disastrous results which would
have inevitably followed. It is grievous to think that his son, the
then Jubraj Soor Chandra Singh, who served us so well, was allowed to
die in exile, and that Thangal Major died on the scaffold: while many
others who accompanied the expedition, were transported as criminals,
across the dreaded "black water" to the Andamans.
It was the misfortune of those engaged in the Naga Hills expedition,
that they were overshadowed, and their gallant deeds almost ignored, by
the Afghan war then in progress. Some of the English papers imagined
that the operations in the Naga Hills were included in it, and the
Government of India, which has only eyes for the North-West Frontier,
showed little desire to recognise the hard work, and good service
rendered on its eastern border, amidst difficulties far greater than
those which beset our troops in Afghanistan. The force engaged, hoped
that the capture of Konoma, which was achieved after such hard fighting
and at so great a loss, would have been at least recognised by some
special decoration, but this hope was disappointed, apparently for
no other reason, than that the troops engaged, fought in the east,
and not in the west of India. Kaye, the historian, once said that,
"the countries to the east of the Bay of Bengal, were the grave
of fame." Well did the Naga Hills campaign, prove the truth of his
words. A bronze star was the reward of a bloodless march from Kabul
to Kandahar, but not even a clasp could be spared to commemorate
the capture of Konoma, and those who never saw a shot fired, shared
the medal awarded equally with those who fought and bled in that
bloody fight.