1855.] Notes on Northern CacJiar. 653 



It appears to have been our object at first and for some time, 

 under the supposition that the country lay within our territories, to 

 exert a control over the tribe, and exact a certain tribute, however 

 small, in token of our supremacy; and for this reason, as well as to 

 punish and prevent the recurrence of the inroads and forays which 

 the Angamies were in the habit of periodically making into North 

 Cachar and the plains, no less than ten expeditions were sent against 

 them. Some of these were directly hostile, others pacific and concilia- 

 tory, but none were attended with any permanently beneficial effects, 

 it being impossible to negotiate with a people who have no recog- 

 nized head, and exceedingly difficult to punish a tribe so subtle in 

 effecting their escape. Tillages were indeed burned, but the inha- 

 bitants always escaped, and little or no inconvenience was caused by 

 the fire, as the houses being merely built of reeds and grass could 

 be replaced at a day's notice when the troops had evacuated the site. 

 As for the exaction of tribute, in most cases the Gaon Booras or 

 spokesmen agreed most readily to the measure, but the majority of 

 the villages failed to ratify the arrangement, and prepared to resist 

 the exaction by force of arms. 



In 1849, a darogah on duty in the hills, however, having mixed him- 

 self up in some private differences among the tribe, was murdered, 

 together with several of the sepoys of the guard which accompanied 

 him, and to punish this outrage Lieut. Vincent was sent up to the 

 hills with a small detachment of troops. He found the hostile party 

 strongly entrenched in a hill fort in the neighbourhood of Konamah, 

 and his force being too weak to dislodge them, he endeavoured 

 during the entire season to prevent them from communicating with 

 other villages, obtaining supplies, or cultivating their own fields. 

 His detachment was even too small for this purpose, and his failure 

 in effecting it so encouraged the evil-disposed of the tribe, that the 

 garrison was much augmented, and many of the villages which had 

 formerly remained neutral declared their hostility to us, although 

 some still remained faithful. In 1850, therefore, it was found ne- 

 cessary to send up a force of five hundred men with two three- 

 pounder guns to capture the fort, and bring the hostile clans to 

 terms. The fort was evacuated after a siege of sixteen hours, and 

 rased to the ground, but the garrison all escaped. 



