View source for Mizoram, 1872: Withdrawal of The Troops

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This article is an extract from <br/>


'''THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION '''  <br/>
1871-1872<br/>

BY<br/>
R.G. WOODTHORPE.<br/>
LIEUT. ROYAL ENGINEERS.<br/>

LONDON:<br/>
HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS, <br/>
13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.<br/>

1873.<br/>
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[[Category:India|M ]]
[[Category:Places|M ]]

=Withdrawal of The Troops=

The withdrawal of the troops was conducted 
most methodically, each detachment in turn 
leaving a few men as guard, vacating its post 
two or three ' hours before the head-quarters 
arrived. 

At Chepui the second halt was made, and a 
great distribution of presents took place to those 
men who had hitherto accompanied us. Bed 
shawls and blankets, gay carriage rugs, white 
shirts, turbans of all sorts, and strangest present 
of all, but truly British-like in its inappropriate- 
ness, aluminium crystal-backed two guinea 
watches, and a glass decanter, were given away 
to the gratified recipients. 

Darpong became the proud possessor of a watch, 
which he flourished about, applying it to the ears 
of his less fortunate friends for them to hear it 
tick, and showing them how the works moved. 
Alas ! two days after he had lost the key, the 
watch had stopped, and no one envied him his 
prize in the least. 

If it were necessary to give them something to 
amuse them, and at the same time point a moral, 
some of those musical toys, in which, by turning 
a handle gently, a small regiment of soldiers 
(usually three) is made to appear and disappear 
across a mimic parade-ground to the soft pleasing 
sound of a simple strain, would, no doubt, have 
delighted them. The Politicals might have 
explained to the intelligent savages that the 
soldiers were our troops; the parade-ground, 
Lushai Country; the motive power necessary 
to bring the Sepoys into that country the 
raiding they so often had indulged in; and that 
the inevitable consequence of their turning the 
handle would be the re-appearance of the soldiers 
at whose departure they were then rejoicing. 

At Chepui we saw some enterprising Cabuli 
fruit-sellers who had been down as far as Kung- 
nung with their stock of raisins, pistachio nuts, 
almonds and native fruits. Purchases were 
eagerly made from them, and mysterious whispers 
conveyed the invitation: 

"Come and dine, we have a plum-pudding to 
night." 

Such invitations had hitherto been so rare, that 
it was impossible to refuse them. 

The night we were at Chepui, about eight 
o'clock, as we were sitting over our camp fire dis- 
cussing the events of the day and rum and 
water, we heard strains of music, accompanying 
a wild monotonous chant, approaching the camp. 
We rose to see what it meant, and saw nearly the 
whole male population of Chepui C9ming up in 
procession, preceded by a few men playing drums, 
gourd instruments, and reed-pipes. At their head 
marched a staff-officer with a lantern, who had 
gone to conduct the procession past the sen- 
tries. 

The Lushais halted in an open space, and offi- 
cers. Sepoys, and Lushais formed a ring, in 
which it was intimated dancing was to take place. 
After a short song, intended to be an account of 
our doings, but whether complimentary or not 
no one possessed sufficient knowledge of the Ian- 
guage to determine, the dancing commenced. 
One man came forward, and loosing his sheet 
fastened it in a roll round his waist, and 
placing a small com cob on the ground to indicate 
the lady of his affections, commenced a sort of 
pas d’extase. With bent knees, and body inclined 
forwards, he kept time to the slow music by 
swaying to and fro, turning now to the right, now 
to the left, opening and closing his fingers. Oc- 
casionally this motion was varied by a few excited 
bounds backwards and forwards, and twisting 
and twirling. 

When the first dancer was tired a second took 
his place, but there was very little change in 
the character of the dance. 

The entertainment was given by the flickering 
light of a few lanterns, fixed in their owners' 
waistbelts, or placed in the ground at their feet. 
After rum had been served out with great impar- 
tiality to all the performers, and the dancers had 
begun to get excited, kicking over the lanterns, 
and covering everyone with dust, the General 
said, " Hold, enough!” and the assembly broke 
up. 
==Wild-Flowers In The Jungles==
During the march to Chumfai, we had been 
disappointed at meeting so few wild-flowers in 
these jungles. Violets, with little or no scent, 
had been frequently found, especially in Chumfai 
valley; but these violets, some heliotrope, cox- 
comb, and a few other common flowering weeds, 
were the only varieties of Lushai Flora we 
had discovered. 

On the return, however, our disappointment 
was turned to delight, and had we remained 
longer in the country, we should, probably, have 
been well pleased with the flowers. Even their 
wild-fruit trees were in blossom, tall trees 
covered with a large white flower like a gera-
nium, others a blaze of scarlet blossoms; the 
crimson rhododendrons enlivened the gloom of 
the forest; a beautiful little green passion-flower 
hung in festoons from the trees, the convolvulus 
adorned the tangled briers, and through the long 
grass by the roadside sprang up golden fern and 
lilac flowers. 

The days were gloriously fine. Butterflies, of 
the most brilliant and varied hues, chased each 
other through the shadowy glades, and along the 
sunlit path ; while beautiful little red and yellow 
birds flitted from tree to tree, flashing through 
the sunlight like pure gold. 

Unfortunately, owing to the rapid movements 
of the troops, and to prevent any unnecessary 
alarm or disturbances no one with the head- 
quarters was allowed to shoot any birds in the 
jungle. A native Naturalist had been sent from 
Calcutta to accompany the Expedition, but he 
remained in rear, and I do not know what addi- 
tions he made to the Museum in the cause of 
science. 

We found that all the camps had been much 
improved by those who had been stationed in 
them. Commodious and well-built huts, small 
mess-rooms, slight stockades, and well-cleared 
spaces all round, made them hardly recognisable 
as the little leafy shed-covered spots which we 
used to come upon suddenly out of the jungle. 

At one of the camps, a quantity of empty ghi 
casks were thrown into the fires as the troops 
were about to march. Having been well satu- 
rated with their greasy contents, they blazed up 
merrily, the iron hoops falling off into the flames 
and exciting the cupidity of the Lushais, who, 
as usual, had collected to pick up anything the 
troops left behind them. 
==Jooming Operations==
At first they tried to snatch out the hoops, 
but getting their clothes singed in the attempt, 
they retired to the jungle, and flinging every- 
thing off, armed themselves with long sticks, 
and rushed down upon the fires again; and as 
the rear-guard marched off, they saw the Lushais 
dancing and gesticulating like demons round the 
flames, red hot hoops being whisked out in all 
directions. 

Our return was the signal for the commence- 
ment of jooming operations, the fires following 
us closely. Looking back each day, we could 
see their smoke rising up from the hill-sides, even 
to the camps we had left only that morning. 

All the country for miles around was misty 
with joom smoke, and the increasing haze of the 
weather told of the approaching heat and rains. 
The view from each of our elevated camps was 
far less extensive than formerly, and many of the 
distant ranges had disappeared altogether. 

On the journey back, at first, we used to get our 
letters two and sometimes three times a day; not 
less than the number of deliveries in a well-con- 
ducted town in England. The reason of this was 
that each day we advanced a stage in the direc- 
tion whence the letters were coming; so that we 
received letters before starting, and then reaching 
the following stage found the next dak returning. 

Here I must express my admiration for the 
dak arrangements made by Colonel Roberts, and 
carried out under his orders by the police with 
wonderful regularity. Not a day passed without 
despatching the dak, and scarcely a day without 
receiving the letters and papers, though they 
arrived sometimes in the middle of the night, 
much to the dissatisfaction of some drowsy souls, 
who preferred sleeping to any number of com- 
munications from friends. 

A few souvenirs were brought away by the 
officers and men, such as skin shields, spears, 
musical instruments, &c., but the greatest curio- 
sities of all which we brought back were the old 
captives who had been given up. 

We had a large and increasing following of cap- 
tives as we returned. Many of them were young 

people with their families, but among them were 
a few aged ladies and gentlemen, who were 
wonderfully old, and utterly incapable of walking. 
These were therefore carried on coolies* backs. 
The old things knelt in a sling which passed 
across the coolies' foreheads, and clung to his 
shoulders. This mode of travelling must have 
been very tiring in a long day's march. 
==Old Captives Rescued==
When put down during a halt, they, at once 
went to sleep, and seemed utterly apathetic as to 
their fate. A return to their native villages must 
have been for them the awaking of Rip Van 
Winkle; they would find young people become 
old, and all their former intimates dead or un- 
mindful of them; and probably, if they had not 
been in the imbecility of extreme old age, would 
sooner have remained with their captors, who must 
have treated them with some consideration or 
kindness. 

I made a sketch of one of these old people, but 
could arrive at no conclusion as to the age or sex, 
and my questioning elicited no response what 
ever from the shrivelled mummy. There was an 
expression of coarseness, and the reflection of far 
off sadness, as it were, visible in the countenance 
of the poor old thing, and one was filled with 
pity to think that it had still to be carried over a 
hundred miles, to find probably at the end no one 
to care for it or look after it, till welcome death 
should at last arrive. 

Our coolies, who were Cossyahs, were very 
much pleased at the idea of returning home, and 
used occasionally in the evening to get up small 
entertainments of singing, whistling, and dancing 
round a fire. One, a little boy, used to arrange 
his dress like a woman's, and give imitations of 
Hindustani and Cossyah nautches to the accom- 
paniment of an imaginary tom-tom. Their friends 
meanwhile looked on with an absence of any ap- 
parent approval, and a persistent gravity which 
could not have been surpassed by the most fashion- 
able audiences at home, when viewing an amateur 
performance by their most enthusiastic friends. 

Leeches, ticks, mosquitoes, sand-flies, and 
other abominations which we had been so freely 
promised by some sanguine friends before we 
started on the Expedition, but from which we 
had hitherto been free, began to annoy us very 
much on the return, and we were not sorry to get 
back once more to Tipai Mukh, where the whole 
force arrived on the 6th or 7th March. 
==Profitable Business==
The detachments from the nearer stations had 
gone on to Cachar on rafts or in boats as they 
arrived at Tipai Mukh, and the rest were em- 
ployed in constructing rafts. 

Tt had originally been intended that the troops 
should march, but owing to the heat, and the fact 
that cholera had once more appeared among the 
men at Tipai Mukh, the water-route seemed to be 
the best. 

A large number of Lushais had accompanied us 
as far as Tipai Mukh, and were busily employed 
in driving a few last bargains. They brought 
down large quantites of India-rubber, which they 
exchanged eagerly for salt, equal weights, and as 
the value of the rubber was more than four times 
that of the salt, any individuals who could com- 
mand a large supply of the latter had an excellent 
opportunity of doing a little profitable business. 

By the 10th of March, in accordance with the 
orders of the Government before quoted, all the 
troops and coolies had bidden farewell to Tipai 
Mukh; and the Tuivai itself, flowiDg past mined 
hats and deserted godowns, once more greeted 
the Barak with its ceaseless babble, undisturbed 
by the cries of coolies and the trumpeting of 
elephants, while the surrounding jungles relapsed 
into their former silence, resounding no more to 
the blows of the invaders' axes. 

The rapids on the Barak, at this season of the 
year, were very shallow, and great excitement and 
amusement were afforded to the Sepoys by the 
trouble and hairbreadth escapes they met with 
in managing, or rather in trying to manage, their 
rafts, and steering them clear of sunken rocks and 
tree trunks. 

This mode of travelling was entirely new to 
many of them, and their efforts were not always 
successful, as evinced by the ever-increasing pile 
of broken rafts at most of the difficult passages.