490 CHAPTER XL THE MOHMUND CAMPAIGN.

BY the end of August Sir Bindon Blood had completed the pacification of the Swat Valley on the leftbank of the river. On the 27th the 2ndBrigadeof the MalakandField Force, underJeffreys, was marchedup toThana, opposite Chakdara, to remain in observation in the valley, while the ist Brigade, under Meiklejohn, which had done the heaviest work of the campaign, was brought back to Khar, below theMalakandPass, for a short rest. Two days laterColonel Reid,with a columncomposed of the 10th Battery, R.A., the nth Bengal Lancers, the 22nd Punjaubis, and the 38th Dogras, was sent across the river at Chakdara, and marched to Uch, a village six miles to the north of the fort, just below a pass leading over the hills into the Panjkora Valley. Here Reid halted,and began to receive the submission of the tribesnorth of the Swat River, whoseheadmen came in and surrendered a large number of rifles.

another force marched northwards from Peshawur underGeneralElles,the two columnsjoining handsin theMohmund country. Bloodmarched on Nawagai, about thirty miles west of the Malakand, and fifty north of Peshawur. The forceunder General Elles consisted of a whole division,composedas follows:— ist Brigade— GeneralWestmacott.— Somerset LightInfantry, 2ndBattalion ist Goorkhas,20th Punjaubis.

2nd Brigade— General C. R. Macgregor.— Oxfordshire Light Infantry, 9th Goorkhas, 37th Dogras.

Other troops attached to the division:— Two mountain batteries, 13th Bengal Lancers, 28th Bombay Pioneers, and a regiment of Imperial Service Infantry.

These last were a contingent of the troops organised in the native states of India to act with the Imperial armies. Two native princes, the Maharajah of Puttiala and Sir Pertab Singh, of Jodhpore, served on General Elles's staff. There were numerous offers of service from other princes,and the Government was glad to accept theoffer of the transport train organised by the Maharajah Scindiah, of Gwalior,and the Maharajah of Jeypore. Thisloyal support from the native states showed that the border war, serious asit might be, was only a local outbreak that couldnot disturb the generaltranquillity of India,so long, at least, as the British armies on the frontiershowed themselvesstrongenoughto cope Avith the tribes. At this moment, too, a considerableweightof anxiety was removedfrom the minds of the Indian Government by a statement of the Amir ofAfghanistan, disavowingall sympathy with the insurgents on the border.

But the rising of the Mohmunds, and the events that followed the raid on Shabkadr, soon found further occupation for Sir Bindon Blood's force. When theHadda Mullah withdrewacross the border after General Elles's relief of Shabkadr, he marched northwards, calling the Mohmunds, and their neighbours the Utman Klael, and the people of Bajaur to arms, and at the head of a large levy of tribesmen he turned towardsthe Chitral country. Theloyal Khan of Dir barred his way,and with his people heldthe passage of the Panjkora River. Sir Bindon Blood dispatched his 3rd Brigade, under Wodelaouse, to Uch, to join Colonel Reid's force, and cross the hills to the Panjkora. Wodehouse took commandof the united force, andreached the suspension bridge on the Panjkora River justin time to saveit from falling into the hands of the Hadda Mullah's armedlevy. A garrison wasplaced at thebridge tohelp the Khan of Dir to hold this gateway to Chitral.

On September nth General Elles, leaving General Gaselee in command at Peshawur, marched out with his division to Shabkadr. On the 15th he crossed the border. The advance met with no opposition as it moved northward into the Mohmund country, but Sir Bindon Bloodhad some sharp fighting on the other line of advance.

Towards the end of the first week of September arrangements were made to strike a heavy blowat the insurgent Mohmunds. General Sir Bindon Blood, leaving his ist Brigade to hold the Swat Valley, was to move westwards, while Wodehouse's brigade hadreached Nawagai on the 13th. His camp had been fired into the