350 



INDIA. 



INDIANA. 



On Dec. 2, 1891, Col. Durand advanced against 

 the Nagar fortress of Nilt, where the tribesmen 

 were assembled, with a force composed of 230 

 Goorkhas of the Indian army and 750 Goorkhas 

 and Dogras from the 3 regiments of Cashmere 

 sepoys that constitute a part of the new im- 

 perial service troops placed at the disposition 

 of the Indian Government by the larger native 

 states, and trained and officered by Englishmen. 

 In addition to the regulars, the expedition was 

 accompanied by 200 Puniali auxiliaries, armed 

 with Snider carbines, and carrying besides the 

 native shield and sword ; several hundred Pathan 

 laborers, a part of whom were armed with rifles, 

 who did the road-making ; and 2,000 coolies for 

 the transport service. The only artillery was a 

 Gatling gun and a pair of 7-pounders from the 

 Hazara mule battery. The march of 8 miles 

 was difficult. The stronghold of Nilt is a forti- 

 fied village, with thick walls and stone houses on 

 which the small shells could make little impres- 

 sion. The whole population was shut up in this 

 fort, and the enemy gave no sign of life until they 

 opened fire on the British, when they approached 

 to 200 yards from the ramparts. The British 

 troops could get no drinking water until they 

 captured the fort. Col. Durand posted his guns 

 within 200 yards of the fort, fully exposed to 

 the fire of the Kan juts, who had Martinis, 

 Sniders, Winchesters, and Russian Berdan 

 rifles, besides their long home-made matchlocks. 

 Many of them were excellent marksmen, but 

 they were hampered in their fire because the 

 loopholes were too few and too narrow. The 

 Punialis climbed a cliff and fired down upon 

 the fort, while a detachment of the Punjab 

 infantry that accompanied the expedition de- 

 scended to the other side of the fort and fired 

 into the loopholes. Of those of the garrison 

 who tried to escape many were picked off by the 

 Indian sharpshooters. Col. Durand was disabled 

 by a wound in the groin, and had to turn over 

 the command to Capt. Bradshaw, just after he 

 had given the order to carry the fort by storm. 

 Under cover of a heavy fusillade, Capt. Aylmer, 

 the engineer officer, and 2 other officers and 6 

 Goorkhas, backed through the abatis of branches 

 and the wooden gate of the outer wall with 

 Kukris, blew open the main gate with guncot- 

 ton, and were engaged in a hand-to-hand fight 

 with the garrison for many minutes, while one 

 of them (Lieut. Boisragon) went back to 

 bring up his Goorkhas, who had not yet dis- 

 covered the breach. The Indian forces soon 

 swarmed into the town, and the Kanjuts, who 

 fought desperately for a few minutes, soon lost 

 spirit and broke. They were hunted through 

 the narrow and intricate alleys of the village. 

 The Wazir of Nagar was killed, but the princi- 

 pal leaders and most of the garrison escaped 

 through a secret gate. The British loss was 5 

 killed and 24 wounded; of the Kanjuts lost, at 

 least 50 were killed. The Kanjuts took up a 

 strong natural position near Nilt, which the 

 British besieged for seventeen days, at the end 

 of which Capt. John M. Smith, with a party of 

 50 men, supported by 50 more, forced it, leading 

 his men up an almost precipitous cliff, while the 

 defenders at the summit rolled down stones. 



Safdar AH and Azar Khan, the two chiefs, 

 were not willing to give up the struggle yet, 



but the people had no heart in the work, and 

 were soon thoroughly intimidated by the harsh 

 reprisals taken by the British, who overran the 

 country. By Jan. 6 resistance was at an end, 

 the chiefs of the tribes had made their submis- 

 sion, and the refractory rajahs had fled over 

 the frontier. Safdar Ali was made a prisoner 

 by the Chinese when he entered their territory, 

 but escaped to Yarkand. Azar Khan was arrest- 

 ed, and handed over to the Indian authorities. 



The chiefs of the Hunza and Nagar tribes 

 met Col. Durand in a durbar at Gilghit on 

 March 25, 1892, where it was announced that, 

 Mahomed Nazim Khan, half-brother of Safdar 

 Ali Khan, was to be Rajah of Hunza, while 

 Jaffa Khan, a former ruler of Nagar, was rein- 

 stated in the chieftainship. Those who had 

 been obliged to leave the country were invited 

 to return, and availed themselves of the permis- 

 sion. The military roads, which had been the 

 occasion of the rebellion, were built to the con- 

 fines of Hunza-Nagar, giving the British com- 

 mand of the passes of the Hindu-Kush. The 

 Chinese authorities, when they heard of the 

 Hunza-Nagar expedition, sent a letter to Gil- 

 ghit, saying that the country belonged to China, 

 and calling upon the British to evacuate it as 

 soon as possible. 



The Black-Mountain Tribes. Costly puni- 

 tive expeditions undertaken in 1888 and 1891 

 against the tribesmen of the Black mountains, 

 on the Afghan border, have failed to subjugate 

 or dismay the bold Pathan mountaineers, who 

 in their resistance to British authority have re- 

 ceived some encouragement from the Ameer of 

 Afghanistan. These tribes engaged to surren- 

 der to the British Hashim Ali, ex-chief of the 

 Hassanzais; but when the time arrived for 

 them to fulfill their engagement they refused to 

 do so, and also refused to expel Hashim Ali 

 from their country. Consequently the Indian 

 Government determined to punish them, and 

 early in October, 1892, an expedition, consisting 

 of over 4,000 troops, under command of Col. Sir 

 W. Lockhart, was sent to the valley of the Indus 

 to destroy the town of Baio, in which Hashim 

 Ali had been harbored. This flying column, 

 which was supported by a large reserve force at 

 Darbund, consisted of a European regiment, a 

 battalion of English rifles, 4 battalions of Goor- 

 khas, Sikhs, and Punjabis, 3 British and 1 native 

 mountain battery, 2 companies of sappers, and 

 2 squadrons of Bengal lancers. 



INDIANA, a Western State, admitted to the 

 Union Dec. 11, 1816; area, 36,350 square miles: 

 population, by the census of 1890, 2,192,404. 

 Capital, Indianapolis. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, Ira J. Chase, 

 Republican ; Secretary of State, Claude Mat- 

 thews, Democrat ; Auditor, J. 0. Henderson, 

 Democrat ; Treasurer, Albert Gall, Democrat ; 

 Attorney-General, Alonzo G. Smith, Democrat ; 

 Superintendent of Public Instruction, Hervey 

 D. Vories, Democrat; Judges of the Supreme 

 Court, Silas D. Coffey, Walter Olds, Byron K. 

 Elliott, Robert W. McBride, and John D. Miller. 



Finances. The receipts from all sources in 

 1892 were $5,833,431, and the disbursements for 

 all purposes $5,653,586. Under the head of 

 general fund the receipts were $2,758,968, and 



