THE EOYAL ARTILLERY INSTITUTION. 
131 
the unwarlike Bengalese and Assamese, armed with such weapons, should 
look upon the sturdily-limbed and swaggering Bhootea as the type of courage. 
Half a dozen of these daring mountain men, armed with nothing but their 
straight heavy sword, would drive whole villages before them, and carry off 
spoil and plunder, should the cowardly inhabitants refuse their demands; 
and all I can say is, “ serve them right.” Such pitiful, lying, intriguing 
cowards as the men of Assam and Bengal, could never become of consequence 
except as huxters and usurers; under the mild equable sway of English 
rule they grow wealthy and flourish, swagger with the boldest, and shoulder 
the bravest men as they pass. 
The mookteah blew himself out like the frog in the fable when speaking 
of the Bhooteas, and informed us that they were men of desperate daring 
and great strength—great men, not like those of the plains, but “ pucka 
jawans ” indeed, sons of the giants. His fierce look, as he imitated his 
terrible masters, was supremely ridiculous, and did not sit well on his 
cunning, wrinkled old face, or become his weak and strengthless frame. 
The chicken-hearted inhabitants of Assam and the dooars looked with awe 
upon the more energetic and manly mountain men, who, however, had 
been painted to us by our own authorities as a contemptible enemy, cruel, 
false, and cowardly, unworthy of our steel. It seemed strange that 
mountain-bred men should be thus! for if the mountain breeds not stout 
hearts, where are they to be found? 
While halting here we heard of the success of the left column, who had 
taken Dalingcote, after a sharp and trying day's work; but a sad calamity 
threw a gloom over the victory. Three officers of Royal Artillery and all 
the detachment who served at the only mortar in action, were blown up by 
the accidental explosion of a powder barrel. The engineer officer, Lieutenant 
Collins, was still alive but fearfully mangled; but three gallant officers. 
Captain Griffin and Lieutenants Waller and Anderson, were killed with 
many fine soldiers. Poor Captain Griffin's name appeared in the Gazette 
a month after his death; he was made a major for past services, his name 
having been omitted when others, and some his junior subordinates, were 
rewarded. Poor Griffin's hearty voice will be long missed by his old 
comrades-in-arms. 
Our eagerness to get on was not decreased by hearing that Dewangiri had 
been occupied by the right column, but the accounts gave the whole honor 
to a party of forty police, under Lieutenant MacDonald,^ who pushed on 
by one of the four passes; while the main column, under Maj.-Gen. Mulcaster, 
was irretrievably confused in another. Lieutenant MacDonald found 
Dewangiri evacuated by the enemy, who, however, seeing the smallness of 
their enemies' numbers, returned, and throughout the night kept up an 
intermittent attack, killing and wounding ten or twelve of the police, but 
utterly failing in driving out or intimidating the gallant little party, under 
Lieutenant MacDonald. 
Maj.-Gen. Mulcaster's force had toiled painfully and slowly up the pass, 
the elephants (which the General had decided on taking with him up 
the mountain road) delaying the rapidity of the advance, and the soldiers 
having experienced great inconvenience from having repeatedly to cross and 
re-cross the stream that followed the windings of the road. Towards the 
close of the day, the advance, on turning a corner, came suddenly upon a 
[vol. v.] 18 
