News from Kendat--Mr. Morgan and his people safe--I determine to
march to Moreh Tannah--March to Kendat--Arrive in time to save
the Bombay-Burmah Corporation Agents--Visit of the Woon--Visit
to the Woon.
On December 17th, I at last received a letter from Mr. A. J. Morgan,
the chief agent of the Bombay-Burmah Corporation at Kendat,
acknowledging my letter of November 12th. He told me that three
Europeans, Messrs. Allan, Roberts and Moncur, had been murdered on the
River Chindwin by the Queen's Secretary; that he and Messrs. Ruckstuhl
and Bretto had been protected by the Kendat Woon, and four others by
the Mengin Woon. He said the Chindwin valley was filling with dacoits,
i.e., brigands, and that their position was very precarious. I at
once wrote to the Woon thanking him warmly for the protection he
had accorded to my fellow-subjects, and sent him a pair of handsome
double-barrelled guns, one of them a rifle, as a present, also five
hundred rupees, which I asked him to give to Mr. Morgan.
Feeling certain of the dangerous position of the British subjects at
Kendat, if they were surrounded by disbanded soldiery who had turned
brigands, I determined to march to the frontier, so as to be ready
to give aid, if necessary. I accordingly asked the Maharajah to lend
me 400 Manipuris, and 500 Kukis, and one mountain gun. With these,
and fifty men of my escort of the 4th Bengal Infantry, under Subadar
Baluk Ram Chowby, I marched off on December 19th.
My escort consisted of sixty men of all ranks, but I weeded out
ten as not likely to stand the severe marches we might have to
undertake. I then paraded the remainder and addressed them, saying
that any man who felt himself unfit for service might fall out, and I
should think none the worse of him. All stood fast, and then I said,
"Now, I will not take you, unless you promise me not to fall sick,
till you have escorted me back safely to Manipur." The men gave a
shout of acclamation, and I gave the order to march, and never had I
better, braver or more devoted men under me, or men who bore hardship
and want of all the little comforts of life more cheerfully.
We reached Moreh Tannah, where I had intended to halt and watch events,
on December 23rd, and there I received a letter from Mr. Morgan,
who described the state of things at Kendat as daily getting worse,
and expressed his conviction that if the dacoits reached Kendat,
the Woon would be unable to hold his own; he therefore hoped I might
be able to afford them the aid they so sorely needed, as, unless a
force marched to their assistance speedily, their lives would not
be safe. On hearing this, I determined to march for Kendat at once,
and by the rapidity of our movements overcome all resistance; indeed,
not to allow the Burmese time to think of it. Accordingly we marched
to Tamu, where the authorities at once submitted, and I declared the
country annexed, and reappointed the old officials, pending further
orders, promising my protection to all classes, and calling on the
people to complain at once if any of my followers injured them.
All this done, we marched to Mamo, some miles beyond Tamu, where
we halted in the rice fields attached to the village which was very
strongly stockaded. My camp was at once filled with men, women and
children, all disposed to be friendly and all willing to receive
little presents. It was a pretty feature of the Kubo valley, as of
Upper Burmah generally, and as in Assam formerly, that immediately
on leaving the village cultivation you plunged at once into forest.
My party was not so numerous as I could have wished. The Minister,
Bularam Singh, accompanied me, but the nine hundred men all told,
that I had asked for, were not there, and the supply of provisions
was scanty. I made all my escort take ten days' food per man, with
orders not to touch it, without my direct permission, and I procured
supplies wherever I could, as we went along. I also took a large
supply of money.
As Bularam Singh was holding the appointment formerly held by Thangal,
he had not the knowledge to help him in all petty details that the
other would have had. However, realising more keenly than ever from
my experience at the relief of Kohima, the extreme value of time,
and of rapid strokes, I pushed on at all hazards, trusting to have
my numbers made up.
I had a few first-rate Manipuri officers with me, and my old orderlies,
Sowpa, Thutot, and Sundha. I took my excellent hospital assistant,
Lachman Parshad, and my Manipuri secretary and interpreter, Chumder
Singh, and most of my old chuprassies, who were invaluable. My head
clerk, Rusni Lall Coondoo, was unfortunately on leave, marrying his
daughter, and I greatly missed him.
On the morning of December 24th, we started from Mamo, determined
to reach Kendat next day, though the Burmese said it was absolutely
impossible to do it. I had with me my escort of fifty men of the 4th
B.I., and between three hundred and four hundred Manipuris, the Kukis
not having arrived. The old road had been disused, and our path was
a perfect zigzag. We halted long after sunset at Pendowa on a small
stream, the Nunparoo. The mountain gun did not arrive, and half our
force was not up till midnight. When all the coolies had arrived,
I told them that if we reached Kendat next evening, they should have
buffalo to eat.
The country through which we had passed was not naturally a difficult
one, but there had been no attempt to make it good, and in places it
was very bad, all the more so from the unnecessary number of times that
we crossed the same river. I was much interested to see large numbers
of bullock carts in the villages, such not being used in Manipur.
Next morning, we started early, and soon began to ascend the Ungocking
hills. This seemed endless, one range succeeded another, here and there
we saw coal cropping out of the hillside. After about 12.30 P.M., the
path was alternately along the bed of a stream and over high ridges,
one of those meaningless, winding roads that seem made expressly to
irritate people with no time to spare. At last, in the far distance,
we saw a scarped hill, that was said to be close to Kendat, and cheered
by the sight, we pressed on, but it was hours before we reached the
goal. About 4 P.M., I met a Burmese, who spoke Hindoostani, and gave
me a letter from Mr. Morgan, telling me that he and his party were all
well, and earnestly longing for our arrival. The man told me that he
was the "Hathee Jemadar," i.e., the man in charge of the elephants,
and he accompanied us.
At last, just after sunset we reached the Chindwin river, even then,
in the dry season, six hundred yards wide. We gave a loud cheer and
hoisted the Union Jack; and the "Hathee Jemadar" went over to tell
the Europeans we had come to save, of our arrival. All my escort and
most of the Manipuris marched in with me; every man had done his best
and hearty were the congratulations that passed between us.
We had marched sixty-five miles over a terribly rough country, the
last thirty being quite impassable for even laden mules, in thirty
hours. A havildar of the 4th said, "Sahib, is not our march one of
the greatest on record?" I told him that it was. It was pleasant to
think that we had arrived on Christmas Day. How little my children
in England realised the way I was employed.
In less than an hour Mr. Morgan, who had seen our arrival, came over
accompanied by Messrs. Ruckstuhl and Bretto, his subordinates, all
dressed in Burmese costume, everything they had having been plundered
in the Woon's absence. Mr. Morgan brought over a message from the
Woon to me, saying that he submitted to my authority, and would come
over to-morrow, and tender his formal submission.
Next day he appeared with Mr. Morgan and made his submission. He
was a dignified old man, with a pleasant face expressive of much
character. I thanked him on behalf of Government for his services in
protecting British subjects, and told him that, while assuming charge
of the country on the part of the British Government, I wished him
to remain in office, and conduct the administration pending definite
instructions. I told him that I expected him to maintain order,
and quiet down the country, and promised him any assistance which he
might require to aid him in the endeavour.
After this, I set to work to secure supplies with Mr. Morgan's aid,
so as to be ready for any emergency, and then crossed the river and
called on the Woon and inspected the stockade, a huge enclosure, 420
yards long and 163 wide, with a wall of solid teak logs, 18 feet high,
and none less than a foot square, with strong heavy gates. I returned
to my camp before nightfall, and the mountain gun arrived under the
escort of Gour Duan Subadar. Next day, I heard that the Mengin Woon
had absconded, finding his position untenable.
Had I had a trained levy at my disposal, as would have been the case
had my advice been followed, I could have easily sent a force to
occupy Mengin, and might indeed have marched to Mandalay. As it was,
commanding only irregulars, my position was one of daily anxiety.
The site of Kendat was very picturesque, situated on the high left
bank of the Chindwin, up and down which a view of many miles is
obtained, the reach being there a long one. The stockade contained
the greater part of the official residences, and a good proportion of
the inhabitants, but there were many houses outside, and temples and
phoongyes' residences. Below the town was a large Manipuri village,
inhabited by the descendants of captives taken in the war of 1819-25.
In the rainy season, when the Chindwin is at its height, and 1200 yards
wide, with the long ranges of the Manipuri Hills in the background,
the view is said to be very beautiful. For many miles round Kendat,
to the east of the Chindwin, the country is flat, but studded here
and there with strange-looking hills with scarped sides, that rise
abruptly out of the plains, calling to mind the hill-forests of Central
India. Kendat was well supplied with boats, many of them being most
elaborately carved.
It was a great misfortune that none of the men of my escort understood
the management of boats, a most useful accomplishment on the eastern
side of India, where rivers abound, and one in which the men of the
old Assam regiments used to be proficient.