CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 434 strengthened by a force under General Sir George White, marching from Ouetta into the Zhob Valley,exploring the Gomal Pass, oneof the main highways into Afghanistan, south of theKhyber,andimposing our own terms on the hilltribes of the district. The expedition cost much laborious marching and road-making, but there were only a few insignificant skirmishes, the resistance of the tribescollapsing when they saw White's force making its way over what they had till then regarded as ground that no army fromIndia would attempt to traverse. In the following year a column, under Colonel Durand, fought its way into the Hunza-Nagar Valley, at the other end of the frontier line. This was one of the most remarkable expeditions ever carried out inNorth-Western India, and three VictoriaCrosses were won during the operations.

On the south of the Pamirs and in the depressions of the great frontier ranges, watered by rivers and streams that finally reach the Indus, are valleys that have been for centuries the home of independent warrior tribes. Some of the valleys of this Asiatic Switzerland have only been trodden by white men for the first time inrecent years. The passes betweenthem are hill tracks that for the most part are only practicable for the mountaineer. Every valley is a natural fortress,and the hillcountrybetween the Indus and the uplandplain of Cabul and the Pamirs is known by names that tell of its longstanding independence. " Yaghistan," the land of the unruly, is one of its traditional names, and it is amply justified by the history of the hilltribes.

One of the more easily travelledroadsof the frontier has a name that brings sadmemories to many an English home. The Khyber Pass, whichopens through thebarrier of the Afghan hills abovePeshawur,witnessed,more than fifty years ago, the destruction of a British army. Down that pass every conqueror that has entered India from Central Asia has made his way. It wasby theKhyber Alexander marched to theIndus more than two thousand years ago.

And yet to our own day the Afridi tribes who live near the pass have preserved a senaiindependence. They cut off the stragglers of conquering armies;they leviedtolls on peaceful caravanscentury after century.

The narrow valley of the Hunza River, the scene of Durand's campaign, is a huge ravine runningup into the Himalayasfrom thenortheastern borders of Kashmir. It wasaccessible only by mere goat paths winding along the rugged mountain walls of the valley, and sometimes carriedon wooden galleriesacross the face of sheer precipices. The Hunza and Nagar tribes w-eresplendid fightingmen, and, securein thisnatural fortress, they had for yearsdefiedour vassal, the Maharajah of Kashmir. They had raidedhis territory, or turning to the northward they had plundered the caravans in the passes leading through the Himalayas from Central Asia. They had in their villages a large number of slaves, Kashmiris, Persians, and Turkomans. Few white men had ever visited their valley. One of these few was the Russian military explorer,Captain Gromchevtskv, whohad come over thePamirswitha party ofCossacks. Shortly before his visit the tribes had accepted British suzerainty,agreeing to desist from slave raiding and plundering, and accepting a small annual subsidy from the Indian Government. The first result of the Russian explorer's visit was that they broke off this arrangement, and in the spring of 1891 they threateneda raid on the Gilgit district of Kashmir,whereDurand hadhis headquarters as British residentin charge of this part of the frontier.

Northwards, another historic pass, the Malakand, leads to the Chitral Valley, and was for centuries one of the great roads to the highlands of Central Asia. Buddhist pilgrims trod its steep paths even in the far-off yearsbefore the Macedoniankingmarched over its crest on his way to his Bactrian conquests. The Khyber and the Malakand are two of the great gates of India; and when the frontier was pushed northwardand westward from the levels of the Punjaub, the time came at last when those who had to decide upon the military policy of the Indian empire judged that the control of both these mountain highways was necessary to our security. The last war with Afghanistan led to our taking special measures for the defence of the Khyber ; and the steady advance of the Russian outposts and the appearance ofRussian explorers in the Hunza Valleyled to active interference with the hill tribes north as well as west of Peshawui.

Gilgit was reinforced with a detachment of Goorkhas and a couple of mountain guns. The difficulties of frontier warfare may be judged from the fact that on the march up nearly a hundred menof the column died fromcoldand frostbite. During the summer supplies for the In the autumn of l8qo our hold on the southern extremity of the frontier had been