518 CHAPTER XVII.

THE MARCH THROUGH THE BARA VALLEY.

a sungar that barred the pass. The lossesof the day wereonlyonemankilledandsevenwounded.

After blowing up the towersof the neighbouring villages, Gaselee, now reinforced by Lockhart,. marcheddownto a camping ground nearHissar " here he was joined by Colonel Hill and the Kurram column.

THE final stage of the campaign was now approaching. To complete his plan Sir William Lockhart meant to send back across the passes to Shinwari the bulk of his transport— everything, in fact, that could not actually move with the troops. The main column, carrying its supplies with it, would then advance to Dwatoi and march eastward down theBara Valley. Meanwhile thePeshawur column, which had already moved up to Fort Bara, at the mouth of the valley, would march westward up the river andjoinhandswithLockhart at the villageof Barkai.

The camp was freelyfired into after dark, and on the night of the29th SirPertabSingh,a Sikh prince serving on Sir William Lockhart's staff, was wounded in the hand. Inhis officialreport Lockhart notes that Sir Pertab "had his hand bound up by hisservant,and saidnothing about it," adding that "this plucky behaviour on his part isonly whatmight be expectedby a man of his race and soldierlyinstincts."

As thepeople remained defiant, Colonel Hill's force was orderedto marchnorthwards toThabi,. near the Afghan border, where there was a gathering of the enemy on the slopes of the SafedKohrange. Hill dividedthe troops placed at his disposal into two columns. The first, under Colonel Money, was to make a frontal attack on Thabi from the south. The second, under Colonel Gordon, was to sweep round to the westwardandmake acombined flank attack. The enemy were driven off and a number of their villages burned, after some desultoryfighting. As the columns withdrew after completing their work the enemy made persistent attacks upon them, and there were as usual morelosses in the retirement than in the advance. The total casualties were seven killed and fifteen wounded. The formerincluded one moreof the Sufficient troopshad been leftin the Mastura and Khanki Valleys to keep the passes open andenforce the terms of surrenderacceptedby the clans who had already made their submission. Tothe westward,in theKurramValley, Colonel Hill,in command of theKurramcolumn, had been operating successfully against the revolted tribes of that part of the border. In these operations he was assisted by troops detached by Sir William Lockhart from the Bagh Camp, and sent into the Kurram country over the Lozaka Pass. The clan most active against the Government were the Chamkannis, allies of the Afridis, who had rejected very favourableterms, and massed their fightingmen about the Kharmaraa Defile. Hill, with the Kurram column, was to advance up the defile from his camp near Sadr, while the Bagh force marched to meet him by Hissar, at the upper end of the narrow valley.

The detachment sent over theLozakaPass for this purpose wascommanded byGeneralGaselee. Sir William Lockhart followedit with a second body of troops. Gaselee had with him the Queen's West Surrey, the 3rd Sikhs, tlae 4th Goorkhas, the 28th Bombay Pioneers, two mountain batteries, and two companies 01 Engineers. These startedfromBagh on November 26th. Lockhart followednext day with the Yorkshire Regiment, half of the Scots Fusiliers, the 2nd Goorkhas,and a mountain battery. On the 28th Gaselee crossed the Lozaka Pass, after abriefengagement,inwhich the Queen'sstormed " fighting Battyes," a promising young officer, Lieutenant Richmond Battye,of the 6th Bengal Cavalry.

Next day Hill made another raid on Thabi with a column of Sikhs and Goorkhas and a mountainbattery. Theenemy this timeoffered little opposition. Major Vansittart, of the Goorkhas, was wounded, two sepoys killed and two wounded. Next day the Chamkannis sent in to ask for terms. At the same timeGeneral Gaseleehadmarchedacolumn into the countiy of their neighbours,the Masuzai,between Thabi