376 



INDIA. 



into the deserted town on April 27. Gen. Col- 

 lett was appointed Acting Chief Commissioner 

 of Assam, and thus clothed with the chief civil 

 authority in addition to the command of all the 

 military* forces, numbering about 4,000 men. 

 The hills were searched for the Senaputty, the 

 Maharajah, and the other members of the Mani- 

 pur Government, who fled with their army 

 northeastward, but could find no secure asylum 

 either in Manipur or in Burmah. All were capt- 

 ured within a few weeks. 



One of the chief results of the Manipnr catas- 

 trophe has been a solemn declaration of the 

 British Government that the perfidious practice 

 of enticing an enemy into a durbar in order to 

 make him a prisoner, although there have been 

 many precedents, will never again be permitted 

 in India. It was deemed necessary for the sake 

 of British prestige to make an example of the 

 Senaputty and the Maharajah and all who were 

 concerned in the execution of the British offi- 

 cers. Not being British subjects, they could not 

 be tried under Indian law. The Indian Govern- 

 ment holds that an attack on the Queen's forces 

 in a protected native state, though not techni- 

 cally to be called treason or rebellion, is not war, 

 and is something that demands exemplary pun- 

 ishment. A military court of inquiry was insti- 

 tuted to try the Manipuri princes. The old 

 Senaputty, Tekendrajit Sing, the chief actor in 

 the events, who became titular Jubraj on the ac- 

 cession of his brother as Maharajah, but still re- 

 tained command of the forces, was tried on the 

 double charge of making war on the Queen and 

 of abetting murder. The Maharajah or Regent 

 and his brother Angao Sena, who succeeded to 

 the title of Senaputty, were tried on the first 

 charge only. Manipuri officers who were proved 

 to have taken part in carrying out the order for 

 the execution of the British officers were first 

 tried, convicted, and executed. The Senaputty 

 brought witnesses to prove that he had begun 

 fighting only in self-defense when attacked by 

 the British force, and that so far from having 

 ordered Mr. Quinton and his companions to be 

 killed, he had endeavored to save them from his 

 enraged soldiery. They had refused the terms 

 of absolute surrender that he demanded, and 

 when descending the palace steps to return to 

 the Residency were mobbed by the Naga and 

 Kuki soldiers. The Senaputty came on the 

 scene after Mr. Grimwood had been stricken 

 down. He had the officers conducted to a room 

 in the palace, and said that he was asleep when 

 the Tongal general ordered them to be fettered 

 and led out one by one to be decapitated. All 

 three princes were pronounced guilty, as well as 

 the Tongal general, and were condemned to 

 death. The Senaputty and the Tongal general 

 were hanged at Manipur, where the trial took 

 place, on Aug. 18. The Viceroy commuted the 

 sentence of the Regent and the other brother to 

 lifelong transportation and confiscation of all 

 their goods. 



The. British Government decided not to annex 

 Manipi r, which would involve the introduction 

 of British law and much expense and conflict 

 with the Yiatives. The same object was practi- 

 cally accomplished by choosing as ruler, with 

 the diminished rank of rajah, a child of five 

 years, Chura Chand, in whose name the govern- 



ment will be directed by a British political offi- 

 cer. The succession was made hereditary in the 

 direct line, each successive rajah being bound to 

 acknowledge the paramount authority of the In- 

 dian Government. The payment of tribute and 

 other incidents of political dependency will im- 

 press on the natives the fact of the extinction of 

 the national liberties that they have enjoyed for 

 more than one thousand years, and prepare them 

 for eventual absorption in the Indian system. 



The Miranzai Expedition. The work of 

 reducing the warlike Pathan tribes beyond the 

 border of the Punjab, and thus extending and 

 consolidating British dominion on the most vul- 

 nerable frontier, was carried forward by two 

 considerable military expeditions in 1891. The 

 Miranzai field force operated from the Miranzai 

 valley, inhabited by a section of the Bangash 

 Pathans, who are obedient British subjects, 

 against the Orakzais living in the hills beyond. 

 These hillmen afforded a pretext for a so-called 

 punitive expedition by their border feuds with 

 the neighboring tribes. For every raid on a 

 British village a heavy fine was charged up 

 against them. In January, 1891, Gen. Sir Will- 

 iam Lockhart set out with an army to wipe out 

 old scores and to push the British boundary a 

 little farther into Afghanistan by building roads 

 and establishing military posts in these hills. 

 Though the tribesmen offered little resistance, 

 the campaign was trying to the troops, owing to 

 the severe cold. Between Jan. 20 and Feb. 20 

 every considerable village in the Khanki valley 

 was visited, twenty towers were blown up, fines 

 were collected, arms seized and hostages taken, 

 and Makhmaddin Malik, leader of some of the 

 last raids, was carried off a prisoner. A small 

 garrison was left to protect working parties 

 employed in building roads and a line of forti- 

 fied stations on the Samana range, which over- 

 looks the Khanlik valley. The Orakzais, who 

 have boasted undisputed possession of these 

 hills for ages, were stirred up by fanatical 

 priests to attack the fortified posts on April 4. 

 The guards and laborers were driven back into 

 British territory, and nine Sikh soldiers were 

 killed. Gen. Lockhart, who had joined the 

 Black Mountain expedition, in which he com- 

 manded the reserve force, immediately organ- 

 ized an army of 7,000 men with 18* guns at 

 Kohat, and by April 17 he was on the spot and 

 had made his dispositions to deliver a general 

 attack on the Orakzais, who were assembled in 

 force to defend the Samana hills, the inhabitants 

 of the valley having been joined by other clans 

 and by some of the Afridis. The tribes were 

 still gathering when the advance from Gulistan 

 began. Sistopi was first captured, enabling the 

 British forces to occupy the Mastaon plateau, 

 which is the key to the whole range, and on the 

 following day the main attack was made on 

 Saragarhi, and the village of Ghuztang was at- 

 tacked simultaneously, forcing a retreat into the 

 Khanki valley along the whole line. Three 

 days of severe fighting, with a loss to the Pa- 

 thans of 300 left dead on the field, in addition to 

 the great number carried off, according to their 

 custom, arrested the movement and caused the 

 warriors arriving from distant tribes to disperse 

 to their homes. Those who were already in- 

 volved in the disturbances still floated their 



