179 



dar s guard returned, with the loss of one sepoy 

 and one cooly wounded, having been driven back 

 by an overpowering force. Seventeen only, out of 

 the seventy, coolies returned, the rest having 

 been either dispersed or taken * 



It is probable, indeed so much so that the 

 question hardly admits of a doubt, that Nanmng 

 would have succumbed by this time, had it not 

 been lor the powerful co-operation of Kum- 

 bow. The determined manner, in which ob.^ta- 

 clesi had been successively overcome, had mduc- 

 ed a quailing in the population, which had been 

 productive of the mdst benehcial eftects, had not 

 Rumbow feared that the troops would step from 

 l^anninjr into his territory. This state could easi- 

 ly bring five hundred nu^n to act in ttie jungle, a 

 force v^hich was eciuivajent to twenty times that 

 number in the plain. 



The Rumbow force was headed by Syed bab- 

 ban. who, contemptible as he afterwards proved 

 as an ally, was a formidable opponent. He en- 

 couraged the PanghooU.o to coniinue the strug- 

 gle, and dictated the policy of re-occupyiug each 

 successive station, ae it wa^ quitted by the ad- 

 vancing troops, who had thus, literally, at do one 

 period a foot of ground beyond that which they 

 occupied, and were congequently entirely misled 

 on the essential point of their rear being kept 

 open by a friendly population. 



A retreat was accordingly deliberately resolved 

 on, but, the dispersion of the cooUes requiring a 



. Immediately mfVcr .Imr. M l.e.n e.ciiHng«d «t Kdama Uje gv.^t^T 

 nrftmirtLttnof the Mala V .,ut white fiiweni in their bair. I liey 



ti;teSa to'br:.lBU.i . S^mu^t^ iuattb.vwc.-.tne«d..ud 



mi til ht lired ou. 



