March to Mao and improvement of the road--Lieutenant
Raban--Constant troubles with Burmah--Visit to Mr. Elliott
at Kohima--A tiger hunt made easy--A perilous adventure--Rose
bushes--Brutal conduct of Prince Koireng--We leave Manipur for
England.
In November, I marched to Mao on the Naga Hills frontier, and arranged
for the improvement of some of the halting places on the way. I also
asked Sir Steuart Bayley, the Chief Commissioner, to allow Lieutenant
Raban, R.E., to visit Manipur, with a view to laying out the line
of a cart road from the Manipur valley to Mao. This arrangement he
sanctioned, and Lieutenant Raban arrived in Manipur on December 30th,
1880. The line from Sengmai was bad throughout, and an exceedingly
difficult one in many places. Thangal Major accompanied us, and
I had induced the Maharajah to open out a narrow road, on being
supplied with the necessary tools. We carefully examined the whole
of the road in detail, and, after deciding on the line to adopt,
cut the trace. It was a matter requiring great skill and patience,
both of which Lieutenant Raban had. He was very ably seconded by the
Manipuris, whose keen intelligence made them good auxiliaries. Often
the line had to be cut along the face of a cliff, but fortunately the
rock was soft, and the work was accomplished without accident. The
way we turned the head of the Mao river, the descent to and ascent
from which I had so often, so painfully accomplished, was a great
success, and did not materially increase the distance, as we saved
it by striking the main path at different points. [32]
In the village of Mukhel near which we passed, we saw a pear tree
three or four hundred years old, and greatly venerated by the
villagers. In the same village I saw a Naga cut another man's hair
with a dao (sword). The operation was performed most dexterously
and neatly, by holding the dao under the hair, and then slightly
tapping the latter with a small piece of wood. The result was that
the hair-cutting was as neatly accomplished as it could have been
by the best London hair-dresser. I asked a fine young Naga why all
his tribe wore a single long tuft of hair at the back? He at once
replied, "To make the girls admire me," and added that without it,
he should be laughed at. This is the only explanation I ever had
of the curious fact that most of the Naga tribes wear a long tuft
behind, like Hindoos. By the third week in January we had laid out
the line of road. Thangal Major approved of most of it, but said,
regarding the piece between Sengmai and Kaithemahee, "I will cut it
as I promised, but who will ever use it?" I differed from him, as
nothing could exceed the tortuous and hilly nature of the old road,
running as it did across one succession of spurs and deep ravines,
one of the most heart-breaking paths I ever went along. Within a
month of its completion the old path was entirely deserted.
My health was beginning to break down entirely. I had been very ill
during and immediately after the Naga Hills Expedition, and during
the last march I was laid up one or two days. My wife had long been
a sufferer, but she did not like to leave me, and I did not like
to leave Manipur while the frontier was disturbed and the Kongal
case unsettled. However, now I felt that we both must have change,
and our children also were of an age to go home.
On my return from looking after the road, fresh complications awaited
me. News came from Chattik of the Sumjok (Thoungdoot) authorities
having again caused dissension and joined with another village in
firing on a Manipuri piquet. This had led to reprisals on the part
of the Manipuris, who attacked and drove out the enemy. All this was
done without our relations with Sumjok being anything but strained,
the act of hostility being unauthorised. The ill-defined nature of
the frontier was such, that neither party could be said to be in the
right or wrong. The Kuki, Chussad, and other frontier villages took
advantage of the state of things to plunder the Tankhools, and the
latter in their turn appealed to Manipur.
I felt that, until something was done to set things on a right
footing, I could not leave. Sir Steuart Bayley was about this time
appointed to Hyderabad, which added to my difficulties, as he was
intimately acquainted with the situation, and of course a change in
the administration necessarily means delay. The Burmese authorities,
knowing what I now do, were always, as I then believed, favourably
inclined to us; the ill-feeling was entirely on the part of Sumjok,
whose Tsawbwa had influence at Mandalay, and was able to prevent
justice being done in the case in which he was so discreditably
concerned. He also took advantage of this influence to carry on the
guerilla warfare he did through the Chussads, who disliked Manipur,
on account of some treacherous behaviour on her part in former years.
As the spring advanced, of course the danger of hostilities became
less. Caesar said, "Omnia bella hieme requiescunt." The reverse holds
good in India, and on the eastern frontier the fiercest tribes keep
quiet in the rainy season. [33]
In March, I heard that Mr. (now Sir Charles) Elliott, the new Chief
Commissioner, was about to visit Kohima, where he wished to meet
me, and I set off on my way there, arriving on the 19th, being
well received all along the road by the people of the different
villages. I had a long talk with the Chief Commissioner about the
affairs of Manipur, and the necessity for a survey and delimitation of
the boundary between it and Burmah during the ensuing cold weather,
and then returned. The new road had been opened out to such a width,
except here and there--I was able to ride the whole distance.
The weather was lovely, and the rhododendrons near Mao, and the wild
pears, azaleas, and many other flowering trees along my route, made
the long journey a most pleasant one. Let me say here, while on the
subject of the road, that, notwithstanding all the criticisms passed
on it and predictions of its uselessness, it proved of immense,
nay, incalculable value during the Burmese War of 1885-86, and the
sad troubles of 1891. It was throughout of an easy gradient, never
exceeding one in twenty, and, had a bullock train been established,
might have been used from an early date for conveying produce from
Manipur to the stations of Kohima.
This was my last visit to Kohima, a place fraught with so deep an
interest to me, and so many pleasant and painful associations. I shall
always regret that the site chosen by myself and Major Williamson
was not adopted for the new cantonment, which, with the larger
space available, would have admitted of a greater development than
is possible under present circumstances. Still the place will always
possess an undying interest for me, filled as it is with the memory
of events bearing on my work from the early triumphs of old Ghumbeer
Singh, and my predecessor, Lieut. Gordon, to the day when I marched in
at the head of the relieving party, and heard the fair-haired English
child told by her mother that at last she could have water to drink!
On my return to Manipur, I intended to have started for England,
and our passages were taken by a steamer leaving in April. But the
unsettled state of the Burmese frontier forced me to stay till the
rains had set in in the hills. During this spring we had a visitor,
Mr. Hume, C.B., the well-known ornithologist, who spent three months
in studying the birds of Manipur, with the result, I believe, that
very few new species were found.
In April, we had a little excitement to vary the monotony of life,
though to me my work was of such never-ending interest, that I needed
nothing of the kind. On April 13th, the Maharajah sent to tell me
that a tiger had been surrounded, and asked me to go out and help
to shoot it. The place was about fourteen miles from the capital,
and we started early and rode off to a spot a few miles from Thobal.
I took my sister and the two boys with me, my wife staying with
the baby. The tiger had, according to Manipuri custom, been first
enclosed by a long net, about eight feet high, and outside this a
bamboo palisading had been erected, on which the platforms were built
for the spectators. The space enclosed was eighty to a hundred yards
in diameter, and contained grass and scrub jungle, and a log of wood
tied to strong ropes was arranged, so that it might be dragged up and
down to drive the tiger out of the covert. As soon as we were all in
our places this rope was vigorously pulled, with the result that a
tigress, followed by two cubs, sprang out with a loud roar. The Jubraj
was present, and took command of the proceedings, courteously asking
me from time to time what I wished done. After the first charge, the
tiger was not very lively, and this being the case, several Manipuris,
contrary to orders, jumped down into the arena with long and heavy
spears in the right hand, and a small forked stick in the left. With
the latter they held up a portion of the net, which had been allowed
to fall on the ground to shield their faces, if necessary, and with
the right hand poised the spear, shouting to irritate the tiger,
whom others in the stockade tried to drive out by throwing stones.
Roused by this, the infuriated brute charged in earnest at one of the
men on foot, the latter awaited her with the utmost coolness, and, as
she approached, struck her with the spear; the tiger, however, made
good her charge, but the net stopped her, and she rolled over, and
when released, she retreated. This was repeated, both by the tigress
and the cubs, and after a shot or two, the men on foot attacked them
with spears and finished them off.
The whole scene was a very exciting one and a very fine display of
courage and coolness on the part of the Manipuris.
We did not reach home till 10 P.M., but the weather was splendid,
not unbearably hot as it would have been in India so late in the
season. The day was a memorable one to the boys, and I well remember
the astonishment they caused when, stopping at Shillong on their way
home, some one jokingly said, "And how many tigers have you shot?" The
boys gravely replied "Three."
The day was very nearly proving the last to some of us. The two
boys were being carried in a litter, and my sister and I riding on
ponies. On leaving the village where we had halted, we were riding
down a narrow path with only room for one to pass at a time, when,
suddenly, I heard a shout behind me and saw an elephant following
me at a great pace, the mahout (driver) vainly endeavoured to stop
him, he had been frightened by the tiger's dead body and was quite
unmanageable. I called to my sister, who was in front, to ride at
full speed, and I followed as quickly as her pony would allow. It
was a race for life, as, had the elephant gained on us, I, at least,
must have been crushed. Luckily, the mahout recovered his control,
and managed to slacken the pace.
On our way home, we passed bushes of wild roses twenty feet in diameter
and quite impenetrable.
Finally, the tiger was taken to the Maharajah, who had not been well
enough to come, and, next morning, was brought to us and skinned.
I have already alluded to the turbulent character of Kotwal Koireng,
the Maharajah's fourth son, and now, again, I was to have fresh
evidence of it. Early in May, I heard of his having three men so
severely beaten that one had died, and two were dangerously ill. On
investigation, I found that the men had been tied up and beaten on
the back, it was said, for two hours and slapped on the face at the
same time. I questioned the ministers, and practically there was no
defence, and, as I heard that the Maharajah was enquiring into the
matter, I said no more, beyond a warning that a case of murder must
not be passed over.
The Maharajah handed over the case to the Cherap Court [34] for trial,
and, as might be expected, they acquitted Kotwal of the charge of
causing death and found him guilty of injuring the other two. The
Maharajah sentenced him to banishment for a year to the island of
Thanga, in the Logtak Lake, and temporary degradation of caste. As
a sentence of two years' imprisonment had been passed some years
previously in our own territory, for death caused under similar
circumstances, the sentence was not so lenient as might have been
expected. I reported the matter to the Government of India, expressing
my approval of the sentence, under the circumstances, and my verdict
was ratified. I intimated to the Durbar that, should such a thing
occur again, I should insist on his permanent banishment from Manipur.
This I was prepared to carry out myself if necessary. I should
have liked on this occasion to have procured his banishment, but,
in dealing with Native States that in these matters are practically
independent, it is not always well to press matters too far. In old
days, under our early political agents, such an offence would have
passed unnoticed. It was a point gained to have the case investigated
and adjudicated on by the Maharajah, and anything approaching to an
adequate sentence inflicted. Since the troubles in Manipur, I have
seen it stated that the sentence was a nominal one; that it certainly
was not, the prince was banished to Thanga, and if he surreptitiously
appeared at the capital, he did not appear in public, and when I left
Manipur on long leave, early in 1882, was still in banishment.
On May 31st, we all left Manipur on our way to England, and my children
bade adieu to a most happy home. It was a sad parting for most of us,
and though my wife's health and mine urgently required change, we left
the valley with regret, and felt deep sorrow as we took our last look
of it from the adjacent range of hills. We reached Cachar on June 8th,
having halted as much as possible on high ground. The rivers were in
flood, and sometimes there was a little difficulty in crossing. We left
for Shillong on June 9th, and arrived there on the 15th, leaving again
on the 21st for Bombay, from which, on July 5th, we sailed for England.
While at Shillong we were the guests of the Chief Commissioner,
so that I had an ample opportunity of talking over affairs with him,
and it was finally settled that I was to take Shillong on my way back,
and see Mr. Elliott before leaving, to settle the knotty question of
the boundary between Manipur and Burmah on the spot, in accordance
with orders lately received from the Government of India.