HILL CAMPAIGN UNDER NAPIER. 173 



quilllty on this frontier was formerly enormous, 

 as compared with what it now costs ; in fact, the 

 large military force the Government found it 

 necessary for so many years to maintain in 

 Sindh, not for the purpose of restraining the 

 people, but to be ready to defend India from 

 foreign enemies, has been the cause of the 

 expenditure so greatly exceeding the revenues 

 of the Province. Some declare that it will never 

 be self-supporting ; but, until the exports of the 

 country shall have attained their maximum, it 

 will be impossible to form anything like an 

 accurate judgment on this point. 



The frontier tribes are now quiet enough, 

 but a few years ago they were constantly dis- 

 turbing the peace of the border ; and to such an 

 extent had tliese predatory inroads arrived, that 

 in January, 1845, Sir Charles Napier found it 

 necessary to take the field, and, with an army of 

 6000 men, commenced the Truckee (or hill 

 campaign) against the Murrees, Bhoogtees, &c., 

 and so masterly were the arrangements of that 

 great commander for hemming in those robber- 

 tribes, that in little more than six weeks they 

 were too glad to surrender at discretion. The 

 hill tribes mustered 18,800 fighting men, and 



