CHITRAL AND THE N.W. FRONTIER CAMPAIGN. 486 miles. The result of this cannonade was that thebesiegers temporarily suspended their attack. The garrison took advantage of this lullin the storm to escape,and returned to Jamrud with the column. Inthe night,Fort Maude wasseen to bein flames.It had beenoccupied,plundered, andburned by the Afridis.

and their plunder into a safe place, so the most their leaders could obtain from them was a promise to reassemble in the middle of September.

On August 26th, the very dayon which the Afridis dispersed after their easy conquest of the Khyber, the Orakzais broke out. They surprised a small police post on theUblar Pass, six miles north-west of Kohat. Next morning General Yeatman-Biggs marched from Kohat to disperse them, taking with him the 2nd Punjaub Infantry, two companies of the Royal Scots Fusiliers, the 9th Field Battery, and a squadron of the 3rd Punjaub Cavalry. The enemy were driven from the Pass after a sharp action, but on the troopsbeginning to return to-Kohat the Orakzais turned and followed them downthe Pass, skirmishing amongthe rocks,and keeping up a galling fare on the rearguard.

There wasno waterin the Pass,and severalmen dropped withsunstroke. Three killed and fourteen wounded, including two officers, were the casualtiesof theday, which could hardly beconsidereda complete success. It was noticed that many of the enemy woreold khaki jackets,and had the look of drilledsoldiers, as no doubt they were, for many of the border tribesmen take servicein the regimentsof thePunjaub army.

No satisfactory explanation has yet beengiven of whyit was that the Peshawur garrison, 10,000 strong, allowed the hillmen to secure these successes actually within sight of its outposts, and to close for weeks the trade route of the Khyber. On the morning of the 24th the mouth of the Pass was reconnoitred, and no trace of the enemy was to be seen. Even then, however, nothing was done to reoccupy the lost forts.

The Afridi gathering had not broken up,but had marched up the Pass to attack the fort of Lundi Kotal. It is a large, loop-holed inclosure near the summit of the Pass, andis the furthest Indian station towards the Afghan frontier in this direction. It washeldby five native officers and 370 men of the Khyber Rifles. Of these, 250 were Afridis,the rest belonging to the Mohmunds,Shinwaris,Zakka Khel,and other neighbouring clans. For the first day a determined resistance was offered to the attack. But early on the morning of the 25th some of the Shinwarisdeserted, leaping down from the wall and running over to the enemy. After this some Afridis on the wall opened a parley with their countrymen outside; thegate was treacherously opened,and the besiegers poured in,no further attempt at defence being made. Some of the Afridi garrison made their way to Peshawur, protesting that to the very end they had been true to their salt, and that thev wouldhave held the post successfully but for the defection of their countrymen. One native officer actually kept his men together, fought his way through the victorious Afridis, and reached Fort Jamrud with his company by making a long detour through the hills. All the while the Peshawur garrison wasdoing nothing to save the Khyber and its loyal defenders. This inaction was all the more unfortunate,because shortly before a reservesupply of 10,000 rounds of ammunition had been sent to Lundi Kotal, most of which now fell into the hands of the enemy.

On the same day Colonel Abbott, with the 16th Sikhs and two guns, broke up anOrakzai levy which was besieging the police post of Lakha on the Samana Range,andbrought away the little garrison. Here also the enemy gathered again rapidly as soon as the troops began to return to their camp at Hangu, and harassed their retreat for miles.

The next few days brought news of villages burned, police posts fired into, and mail-carts robbedallalong the OrakzaiBorder. The tribes of the Kurram Valley and the Samana Range were up in arms. On August 31st General Yeatman-Biggs reached Hangu from Kohat,and began to concentrate a brigade, with guns and cavalry, for operations against the mountaineers.

Here he was joined a few days later by one of the nativeprinces,the MaharajahofKuch-Behar, who was anxious to see active service under the British flag. In the first days of September a flying column, under Colonels Richardson and Abbott,movedup the Kurramby Thai toSadda, arriving just in time to save the fort at the latter place from a determined attack. Abbott, with the vanguard, did the last forty-nine milesof the march in forty hours. Three miles out from Sadda there was anisolated policepost at aplace The tribesmen, having looted Lundi Kotal and set fire to the buildings, began to disperse to their homes, notwithstanding the protests of the mullahs. They were running short of supplies, and they wantedto get their wounded