250 TEAVEL, ADVENTUEE, AND SPOET. 



at length commenced acts of open hostility, first 

 threatened to attack Lalpoorah itself, then deter- 

 mined to attack the small village of Kara (lesser) 

 Dakka, seven miles from the fort, for having supplied 

 us with provisions. 



Had they been permitted to do this, not only would 

 it have injured our prestige, but from this point 

 a short march over the hills would have brought the 

 enemy on to our main line of communications from the 

 Khyber, along which large convoys were daily passing 

 and repassing. To prevent it, 150 men of the Mhair- 

 warra battalion, under Captain Creagh, were sent to 

 protect the village. But sending so small a force 

 seven miles from supports was only inviting attack, 

 and in a few hours thousands of Mohmunds crossed 

 the river and fiercely attacked the detachment. 

 Captain Creagh had luckily taken up a strong posi- 

 tion, against which the Mohmunds charged in vain. 

 Again and again the Mhairwarras drove back the 

 enemy with the bayonet, and bravely held their own 

 till the arrival of reinforcements. First arrived a 

 body of Lancers, who, despite the unsuitableness of 

 the ground for cavalry, charged and inflicted a heavy 

 loss on the Mohmunds. Some infantry and guns 

 arriving shortly after, the Mohmunds were driven 

 off and the Mhairwarras relieved. But now, unfor- 

 tunately, it was determined to march back to the 

 fort. Over four miles of low rocky spurs intervened, 

 and, as might have been expected, the moment the 



