THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION .

The lofty hills to the south of Munipur ,Cachar, and a portion of the territory to the south-west of. . Cachar , known as Independent or Hill Tipperah , have been held by various families of the Kookie tribe from the earliest times of which we have any record .The name Kookie has been given to this great tribe, as Mr . Edgar tells Us , by the Bengalis ,and is not recognized by the Hillmen them selves . He saysI have never found any trace of a common name for the tribe among them, although they seem to consider different families as belonging to a single group , which is cer tainly coextensive with what we call the Kookie tribe .”The principal families with who m we firstcame in contact, were the Tangune , Chausels,Lad oé, and Poitoo Kooki es . All authoritiesagree in stating that from a very early period ,the tribes to the south have been gradually driving one another in a northern direction ;formerly the Buban Hills and a port ion of South Cachar were occupied by some members of a race called Nagas ; but these were obliged, by the Tangunes,to withdraw to the North Cachar hills .The Tangunes, occupying their ground , were in their turn dispossessed and driven to the northern hills by the Chausels and LadOés .These have likewise been compelled to retire northward by the Lushais .The Poitoo Kookies inhabited the hills on each side of the valley of the Goot ur river, and were supposed to be more or less subject to the Rajah of Tipperah . The relations existing between the Poit oo chief and the Rajah were ,however, repudiated on occasion by each .The Lushais first appeared on the scene about the year 1840, the first chief of whom we had any knowledge being Lalal ; fro m whom are descended the chiefs who have lately been the cause of so much anxiety to the Indian Government .He had four sons . Of these , when we first hear of them, Mongpir was struggling in the west against the Poitoos,to establish himself on the Chatar chara range ; Lalingvoom was ruling the Villages south of the hill known as Peak in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India ;while Lalsavoong was striving with the Ladoes in the east for possession of the Chum fai valley and range to the north of it .In 1 844, an attack was made on a village of Sylhet by some Poit oo Kookies, under a chief named Lalchokla, when twenty human heads and six live captives were carried off. It was said that the raid was made to procure heads to bury with a chief who had lately died .The Rajah of Tipperah was called upon by the Government to assist in punishing Lalchokla, and recovering the capti ves ; but as his cooperation was very unsatisfactory , and the step she took manifestly inadequate to accomplish their Object, a party of troops , under Captain Black wood , proceeded viaKoilashur , on the 1st of December, to attack Lalchoklas Village .Assisted by a Kookie chief, our troops arrived at the village and surrounded it , and by destroying the grain in the country ar oim d , the Poitoo chief was speedily reduced to submission ,and surrendered on the 4 th . He confessed to the raid , but professed ignorance of the fact tha t it had been made on British subjects . This plea of ignorance was not admitted , and he was eventually transported for life .It has been said that one of the conditions of his surrender was that his life would be Spared . This he took to mean a free pardon ;consequently the Kookies looked upon his trans por tation as a breach of faith on our part . This is alleged as one reason for the difficulty experi ence d during the late Expedition in inducing chiefs to come in personally to make their submission .We next hear,in November, 1849 , of some raids made si m ultaneously in Sylhet, Tipperah ,and Cachar . The raid in the latter district was made by Lalingvoomsson , Mora , on some
Lad oé villages not far from the station ; and to punish these outrages an Expedition was organized , and the command entrusted to Colonel Lister , Political Agent in the KhasIa
Hills , and Commandant of the Sylhet Light In fantry .The Expedition started from Cachar on the4 th of January , 1 850, and marching nearly due south , on the 14th , arrived at the large Village of Mora or Moolla, which Colonel Lister at once attacked and destroyed . Most of the inhabitants managed to escape , but about four hundred captives were released ; and proofs were found identifying the villagers with the Sylhet raiders .Colonel Lister remained a short time on the range , but deeming his force too small for any further Operations , he returned to Cachar on the 23r d .The Lushais , during his stay , annoyed him by firing into his camp , endeavouring to cut off his communications , and when he retired ,follo wed him, killing any straggling coolies they came across .Colonel Lis t er considered that,in order to make a permanent impression on the tribes , aforce of not less than three thousand men would be required ,“ and to command their Villages ,a road would have to be carried into the heart of the country , along one of the ridges of hills which ran north and south . As a protective measure, the establishment of armed outposts of friendly Kookies along the frontier was advocated . This question of O pening a road through fromend to end of the country ,is again being urged upon Government as one Of the first things necessary,in order to reap permanent advantages from the success of this last expedition of 18 7 1-72 .of the authorities of what was going on among the Kooki es and Lushais— for information c oncerning whom they were obliged to rely upon one man , a Kookie, named 'Maujihow, who ,as it has since been discove’red , deceived them on several important occasions .The results , nevertheless , of Colonel Lister’s Expedition were very great, as no raids occurred either in Sylhet or Cachar till 1862 ; and in the meantime negotiations had been conducted between the Cachar authorities and the Lushai chiefs . In October, 1850, five Lushai chiefs sent deputies into Cachar with friendly overtures to the Superintendent, who sent a party down to meetthe Lushais . This party returned , accompanied by the Mantri (ambassador) of Sukpilal , the great chief of the Western Lushais .When the Lushais returned to their own country,the Superintendent sent an emissary with them,with friendly messages to the chief, and assurances that i f he went into Cachar he should not be injured nor detained .Sukpilal was supp osed to have Visited Cachar in December, but Mr . Edgar thinks, as this Visit is denied by all the Kookies,that finding that presents would only be given to Sukpilal himself some one was got to personate that chief . The result, however, was the establishment of tradingr elations between the natives of Hyrapandy and the Lushais .In 1855, Sukpilal sent in to the SUperintendent for assistance against some neighbouring chiefs . Government, however, refused to interfere in the quarrels of tribes living beyondour frontier .Mora also sent in a deputation for help to secure the exchange of prisoners between himself and the Munipur is, on whom some raids had been committed ; and this help we were ready to afford him .